escutcheon, eschutcheon, escocheon, escochon, scutcheon

[O. Fr. escu on, from Low Lat. scutionem, acc us. of scutio, from Lat scutum a shield; Fr. écu on.] I. Ordinary Language : 1. In the same sense as II. 1. 2. An ornamental plate, such as is used on a coffin to be inscribed with the name, age, ., of the deceased person. 3. A perforated plate to finish an opening, as the keyhole plate of a door, drawer, or desk II. Technically : 1. Her .: The shield on which coat-armor is represented; the shield of a family. It originally took the simple form of the knight's war-shield, but was afterward varied in a fanciful manner. "All laughed; the Landlord's face grew red As his escutcheon on the wall." Long fellow: Tales of a Wayside Inn (Interlude). 2. Naut.: The compartment on a ship's stern on which her name is written. 3. Zool .: An impre ion existing behind the beaks of a bivalve shell, as distinguished from one placed before them, which is called a Lunule (q. v.). ( S. P. Woodward.) escutcheon of pretense. Her.: The small shield bearing the arms of an heire placed in the center of her husband's shield, instead of being impaled with his arms. ěs-cutch-eoned, a. [Eng. escutcheon; -ed.] Having an escutcheon or coat of arms. "For what, gay friend! is this escutcheoned world, Which hangs out Death in one eternal night?' Young: Night Thoughts , ii. 356, 357. Ěş-drăs, s . [Gr. Esdras =Ezra (q. v.).] Apocrypha: Two books constituting the first and second of the collection called the Apocrypha. (1) First Book of Esdras : The first of the books just mentioned. The Vulgate makes the canonical Book of Ezra, 1 Ezra, 1 Nehemiah, 2 Ezra, and 1st and 2d Esdras, 3 and 4 Ezra respectively. So does the 6th of the Thirty-nine Articles. The nucleus of the book is iii. 1-v. 6; from this part comes the oft quoted Magna est veritas , et pre vale bit . The rest of the work consists of compilations more or le altered from the canonical Ezra and Nehemiah. The book seems to have been composed in Palestine. The author and date are unknown. Dr. Ginsburg thinks it must have existed at least a century before Christ. Singularly enough the Council of Trent, generally so liberal in its reception of apocryphal books into the Canon, rejected this. (2) Second Book of Esdras : The second book of the Apocrypha in the English version, which in this respect follows the Zurich Bible. Great difference of opinion has existed as to the authority and date. Dr. Ginsburg a igns it to about 50 B. C., and believes the author to have been a Jew, interpolations having, however, been subsequently made by a Christian. The Council of Trent rejected this work like the First Book of Esdras.