A merlon, in architecture, forms the solid part of an embattled parapet between the embrasures, sometimes pierced by loopholes.
The word comes from the French language, adapted from the Italian merlone, possibly a shortened form of mergola, connected with Latin mergae (pitchfork), or from a diminutive moerulus, from murus or moerus (a wall). An alternative etymology suggests that the medieval Latin merulus functioned as a diminutive of Latin merle, expressing an image of blackbirds sitting on a wall. This latter etymology, however, seems dubious.
As an essential part of battlements, merlons were used in fortifications for millennia. The best known examples appear on medieval buildings, where battlements were often used as much for decoration as for defensive purposes. After falling out of favour when the invention of cannon forced buildings to take a much lower profile, they re-emerged as decorative features in buildings constructed in the neo-Gothic style of the 19th century.
