medallion

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from French médaillon,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Italian medaglione (“large medal”),^[2][7][3] an augmentative of medaglia (“medal”),^[3][4][5] which also gave medal through French médaille.^[3][2] The OED, in its entry revised in 2001, treats the English word instead as borrowed directly from Italian, where medaglione meant a large medal from 1618 and, from 1550, a painted or sculpted figure in a cornice; it is formed from medaglia and the augmentative suffix -one, the source of English -oon.^[8][9] The OED compares médaillon, a large medal in French from 1554 and a round bas-relief from 1740, and notes that the 18th-century spelling medaillon was remodelled on the French word.^[8] The origin of medaglia is disputed: Klein derives it from Vulgar Latin *metallia (“metal coin”), from metallum (“metal”),^[9][2] while the American Heritage Dictionary traces it to *medālia (“coins worth half a denarius”), from mediālia (“little halves”), a form of mediālis (“of the middle”).^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A large medal: 1658, in Sir Thomas Browne's Garden of Cyrus;^[8][7][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1650s.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a large antique stamp or medal, quoting Addison's comparison of medallions with ordinary coins.^[10]

Semantic evolution

By 1765, in Horace Walpole, the word was used of anything resembling a large medal, especially an oval or circular portrait or decorative design,^[8][2] and the Shorter Oxford dates the sense of a round or oval tablet or panel decorated in relief to the mid 18th century.^[5] In cookery it came to mean a round portion of food, especially of boneless meat,^[3] a use the OED records from 1907, in Escoffier's Guide to Modern Cookery, after French médaillon.^[8][5] In the United States a medallion has also been, since 1925, a licence to run a taxi, issued as a small metal plaque fixed to the bonnet.^[8][5][3] The slang medallion man is a flashily dressed, overconfident man whose open shirt shows a medallion.^[5]

Timeline

• 1658 – a large medal.^[8][7][4]
• 1765 – something resembling a large medal; a round or oval portrait or design.^[8]
• 1850 – verb, to ornament with a medallion or medallions.^[8] The Shorter Oxford dates the verb to the early 19th century.^[5]
• 1907 – in cookery, a round portion of meat or other food.^[8]
• 1925 – in the United States, a taxi licence in the form of a plaque.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large medal, now often one worn as an ornament on a chain around the neck: He was given a bronze medallion for forty years of service.^{[8][3][11][4]}
2. A round or oval decorative design or panel, often bearing a portrait or a figure in relief, used in architecture, textiles and lace.^{[11][4][3][5]}
3. A painting or engraving set in a round or oval frame.^[3]
4. A small round portion of food, especially a boneless cut of meat: medallions of pork.^[3][8]
5. (US) A licence to operate a taxi, issued as a metal plaque fixed to the vehicle.^[8][3][5]
6. Any of various large ancient Greek or Roman coins.^[4][3]

Verb

1. To decorate with medallions, or to represent in a medallion.^[4][8][5]

Related words

• medal
• metal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins