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'Escutcheon' is often the term used in heraldry for the shield displayed in a coat of arms. An 'inescutcheon' is a smaller escutcheon borne within a larger escutcheon. The term crest is often used incorrectly to designate this part of the coat of arms.
The term "escutcheon" also refers to the shield-like shape on which arms are often borne. The escutcheon shape is based on the Medieval shields that were used by knights in combat. Since this shape has been regarded as a war-like device appropriate to men only, ladies customarily bear their arms upon a lozenge, or diamond-shape, while clergymen bear theirs on a cartouche, or oval. Other shapes are possible, such as the roundel commonly used for arms granted to Aboriginal Canadians by the Canadian Heraldic Authority.
Derived from its meaning in heraldry, the term "escutcheon" can be used to represent a family and its honour. A family member who does something shameful can be described as a "blot on the escutcheon."
In English Heraldry the husband of a heraldic heiress - a woman without any brothers - allows his wife to place her father's arms in an escutcheon of pretence in the centre of his own shield. The husband is 'pretending' to be the head of his wife's family. In the next generation the arms would then be quartered. Baron and Feme describes another iteration of the escutcheon.

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Other meanings

Other meanings

★ An escutcheon is also an item of door furniture. In this case, it is an architectural item that surrounds a keyhole or lock cylinder. Escutcheons are mainly decorative: they draw the eye to the keyhole. However some help to protect a lock cylinder from drilling or snapping, and the surrounding area from wear.

★ An escutcheon is also used in bathroom plumbing. The term is used for any back-plate, ornamental or otherwise [usually round] used to cover a gap between a penetrating pipe or control valve, and the finished wall surface from which it protrudes. For example, it can be a chrome plate behind a knob on a shower's temperature and water flow control covering the gap between the control valve and the wall tile surrounding it. Another example would be a small, substantially flat, donut-shaped ring used where a waste pipe or water supply line penetrates a wall - such as the water supply to a toilet tank or a waste line under a sink.

★ In the German army under the Nazi regime, military awards worn on the sleeve near the shoulder were also called escutcheon or shields.

★ Medical terminology: the escutcheon describes the shape of the pubic hair. The male escutcheon has a peak towards the umbilicus, the female escutcheon is flat topped.

★ On ships, the escutcheon is the name plate on the rear of the vessel.

★ Military escutcheon, a chromolithography depicting the military record of a veteran, which were produced in the United States from the end of the Civil War until about 1907. [1]