WORD OF THE DAY: EMBLAZON
verb | im-BLAY-zun
To emblazon something is to decorate its surface, usually with a name, slogan, or picture.
// Her favourite souvenir from her trip to the Grand Canyon was a t-shirt emblazoned with a rosy sunset over the famous chasm.
Examples of emblazon
“Later that week we were boarding our flight with the painting secured in an enormous case with a toothy, bespectacled cartoon squirrel emblazoned on the back and a speech bubble that read ‘I’M JUST NUTS ABOUT PUZZLES!’” — Orlando Whitfield, All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art, 2025
Did You Know?
Blazon is a less commonly used synonym of the more familiar coat of arms. Both centuries-old terms refer to heraldic designs, symbols, and other imagery (think crosses, lions, stripes, etc.) that typically appear on banners, shields, armour, and elsewhere. The verb form of blazon meaning “to depict heraldic figures or designs in drawing or engraving” and emblazon, “to inscribe or adorn with or as if with heraldic figures or designs,” came into use around the same time in the late 1500s, from the French spoken in medieval England. (The word heraldry, also ultimately from Anglo-French, came into use then too.) Emblazon still refers to marking something with an emblem of heraldry, but it is now more often used for adorning or publicising something in any conspicuous way, whether with eye-catching decoration or colorful words of praise.
Merriam Webster Dictionary
