A pullover with a lozenge pattern

A lozenge is a parallelogram which usually has two corners pointing up and down that are farther apart than the corners pointing sideways. It is often used in parquetry and as decoration on ceramics, silverware, and textiles.

Use in camouflage

During the First World War, the Germans were looking for a way to effectively camouflage their aircraft. This resulted in the development of the so-called lozenge pattern, made up of irregular painted polygons. Because painting such a pattern was very time consuming, and the paint added considerably to the weight of the aircraft, it was decided to print the pattern on a fabric. This pre-printed fabric was used from 1916 onwards, in various forms and colours, like the one pictured below.

Use in heraldry

A lozengy field, in the arms of the former urban district council of Eastwood, Nottinghamshire

The lozenge in heraldry is a diamond-shaped charge (an object that can be placed on the field of the shield), usually somewhat narrower than it is tall. It is to be distinguished in modern heraldry from the fusil, which is like the lozenge but narrower, though the distinction has not always been as fine and is not always observed even today. A mascle is a voided lozenge-- that is, a lozenge with a lozenge-shaped hole in the middle-- and the rarer rustre is a lozenge containing a circular hole. A field covered in a pattern of lozenges is described as lozengy; a similar field of mascles is masculy.

The lozenge has for many centuries been particularly associated with women as a vehicle for the display of their coats of arms (instead of the escutcheon or shield). In modern English and Scottish, but not Canadian, heraldry, the arms of an unmarried woman and of widows are usually shown on a lozenge rather than an escutcheon, without crest or helm. An oval or cartouche is occasionally also used instead of the lozenge for such women.

A funereal hatchment, on the traditional lozenge-shaped board

The shield of a married woman (and the lozenge of a widow) may combine her own arms with the arms of her husband, either by impalement side by side or (in the case of a heraldic heiress) in the form of a small "escutcheon of pretence" displaying the wife's arms over a larger shield (or, in the case of a widow, lozenge) of her husband's arms.

As a result of rulings of the English Kings of Arms dated 7 April 1995 and 6 November 1997, married women in England and Wales and in other countries recognising the jurisdiction of the College of Arms in London (such as Australia and New Zealand) also have the option of using their husband's arms alone, marked with a small lozenge as a brisure to show that the arms are displayed for the wife and not the husband, or of using their own personal arms alone, marked with a small shield as a brisure for the same reason.

Divorced women may theoretically until remarriage use their ex-husband's arms differenced with a mascle.

The lozenge shape is also used for funereal hatchments for both men and women.

Cough tablets

A lozenge is also a tablet which people can suck when they have a cough or sore throat. Lozenges contain medicine that helps to reduce the pain or irritation. The name for such a tablet (first used in 1530, according to the Oxford English Dictionary) derives from its being originally lozenge-shaped. Today one of the most popular brand names is Fisherman's Friend, produced in the English county of Lancashire since the 19th century.

The glyph

A lozenge is also a glyph found in MS-DOS code page 437 and Mac-Roman. It is found at Unicode 0x25CA, and can be typed with ◊ (or ◊), which will produce ◊.