exergue

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French exergue.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪɡˈzɜː(ɹ)ɡ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

Noun

exergue (plural exergues)

1. (numismatics) A space beneath the main design on a coin or medal for the insertion of the date or other minor inscription.
   • 1765, Philosophical Transactions, page 138:

     In farther eviction of what has been advanced, relative to the initial letters in the exergues of certain Sidonian coins; it may not be improper to observe, that a medal in my small collection exhibits the letter Hheth, immediately after the numerical inscription in the exergue.

   • 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, William Wilson:

     In childhood I must have felt with the energy of a man what I now find stamped upon memory in lines as vivid, as deep, and as durable as the exergues of the Carthaginian medals.

Derived terms

• exergual

Translations

space on coin

• Catalan: exerg m
• French: exergue (fr) m
• Italian: esergo (it) m

French

Etymology

From Latin exergum, from Ancient Greek ἐξ (ex, “from, out of”) + ἔργον (érgon, “work”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛɡ.zɛʁɡ/

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

exergue m (plural exergues)

1. (numismatics) exergue (space beneath the main design on a coin or medal for an inscription)
2. (by extension) inscription
3. epigraph

Derived terms

• mettre en exergue

Further reading

• “exergue”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.