merlon

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French merlon, from Italian merlone (“merlon”), from merlo (“merlon”) + -one (suffix forming augmentatives). Merlo is derived from Late Latin merulus, merlus, possibly from Latin merula (“blackbird”) (as merlons resemble a row of birds perched on a wall), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems- (“black; blackbird”). The English word is cognate with Italian mergolo (“battlement; pinnacle”), Portuguese merlão, Spanish merlón (“merlon”).

noun

1. (architecture, military, historical) Any of the upright projections between the embrasures of a battlement, originally for archers to shield behind while shooting arrows over the embrasures, or through loopholes in the merlons.
   The Merlons, to the end that they may be good, ought to be made of Earth, the most eaſie to be tempered that may be: And this Earth ought alſo to be mixed with Withy Twigs, or Brambles, provided they take Root, after which they are to be lined with good Turff. 1693, “Of the Embrasures or Merlons”, in Abel Swall, transl., The New Method of Fortification, as Practised by Monsieur de Vauban, Engineer General of France.[…], 2nd edition, London: […] Abell Swall; […], →OCLC, book IV, page 75
   The parapet conſiſts of two parts, namely, the wall and the merlons. … The Merlons are detached pieces of the parapet, leaving openings called Embrasures, thro' which the cannon deliver their ſhot. 1754, J[ohn] Robertson, “A Treatise of Marine Fortification”, in The Elements of Navigation; Containing the Theory and Practice.[…], volume II, London: […] J[ohn] Nourse,[…], →OCLC, section II (Of Batteries), paragraph 26, page 610
   A battery of guns is a bank of earth thrown up to cover the men that are to ſerve the guns; this bank is cut into holes for the cannons to fire through, about 12 feet diſtant from each other. Theſe holes are called embraſures, and the maſſes of earth between them are called merlons; … 1756 July, “An Account of the Siege and Capture of Port Mahon[…]”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume XXVI, London: […] D[avid] Henry and R. Cave,[…], →OCLC, footnote, page 319, column 2
   [T]he property of sloping surfaces … causes a cannon ball from the fortress, which enters by the mouth and strikes one cheek of an embrasure, to glance off without penetrating through the merlon on that side. Such a ball is not therefore likely to prove fatal to those men who are covered by the merlon, but to those only who stand immediately behind the embrasure, and not always even to them, for if it should strike the very sloping part of the cheek, it may be reflected upwards. 1832, C[harles] W[illiam] Pasley, “Of the Space that Must be Allowed, for the Extreme Half Merlon at the Flank of a Battery, when Finished without an Empaulment”, in Rules, Chiefly Deduced from Experiment, for Conducting the Practical Operations of a Siege, Chatham, Kent: […] Establishment for Field Instruction, →OCLC, part II (Containing an Essay on the Construction of Batteries in the Field), section I (The Several Kinds of Batteries Defined.[…]), page 16
   He had appropriated a thick tapestry rope in the great hall, and now, having reached the parapet, he looped the soft strong cord about the girl's hips and lowered her to the earth. Then, making one end fast to a merlon, he slid down after her. 1934 August, Robert E[rvin] Howard, “The Devil in Iron”, in Farnsworth Wright, editor, Weird Tales: A Magazine of the Bizarre and Unusual, Indianapolis, Ind.: Popular Fiction Pub. Co., →OCLC; republished as The Devil in Iron, [Auckland]: The Floating Press, 2013, page 42
   The exterior façades of the Cordoba mosque are carefully composed, with buttresses interspersed with doorways which reflect the framed arch of the mihrab. The upper line of the wall is given a dramatic and eastern finish with a row of stepped merlons. 1991, Barbara Brend, “Lands of the West: Egypt, North Africa and Spain”, in Islamic Art, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, page 54
   The castle spread out before him, its high solid sandstone walls, with their crenel and merlon battlements ending in round towers, was a magnificent sight. 2012, James Herbert, chapter 21, in Ash, London: Pan Books, published 2013, page 141

Etymology 2

A variant of merlin.

noun

1. Alternative spelling of merlin (“a small falcon, Falco columbarius”)
   Most of the fibulae have a triangular molding above the notch, which probably contained wound wire. The crossbar is decorated either with a flat knob or with a Persian merlon. 1949, N. P. Toll, “[Fibulae.] Bow Fibulae.”, in Teresa G. Frisch, N. P. Toll, edited by M[ikhail] I[vanovich] Rostoftzeff, A. R. Bellinger, F. E. Brown, N. P. Toll, and C. B. Welles, The Excavations at Dura-Europos: Conducted by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters: Final Report IV: Part IV. The Bronze Objects: Fascicle 1. Pierced Bronzes, Enameled Bronzes, and Fibulae, New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; London: Geoffrey Cumberlege, Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 56
   Smaller and less powerful falcons included the merlon, the hobby, and the kesterel. 1991, Thomas S. Henricks, “Sport in Feudal England”, in Disputed Pleasures: Sport and Society in Preindustrial England (Contributions to the Study of World History; 28), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISSN, page 23
   The connection between sporting activities and social rank is given a fanciful expression in the aforementioned The Boke of St. Albans. In that work the author lists the types of birds considered appropriate for the various stations of human life: / The eagle, the vulture, and the merlon for an emperor … 2003, Thomas S. Henricks, “Sport in the Later Middle Ages”, in Eric Dunning, Dominic Malcolm, editors, Sport (Critical Concepts in Sociology), volume II (The Development of Sport), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, part 10 (Medieval and Other Pre-modern Sports), page 160