hatchment means A display of the arms, supporters, crests, motto, etc of a deceased person, placed within a black lozenge and hung on a wall. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
hatchment is pronounced /ˈhæt͡ʃmənt/.
Why “hatchment” is a great word
HATCHMENT — [Noun] A diamond-shaped panel displaying the coat of arms of a deceased person, typically hung on a wall or building as a temporary funerary memorial. From Middle French hachement, a modification of Old French acesmement ("adornment"). Unlike an achievement, which displays the full panoply of a living person's arms, or an escutcheon, a general heraldic shield, a hatchment is a starkly coded announcement of a vacancy. It is a black lozenge fixed to a sun-warmed stone wall, a painted board leaning in the dusty corner of a vaulted nave, and the fading diamond of soot and pigment on a sun-bleached facade—a heraldry of vacancy, where the proudest symbols are revealed to be merely on loan.
noun
- A display of the arms, supporters, crests, motto, etc of a deceased person, placed within a black lozenge and hung on a wall“No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones.”