cartouche

noun

car·​touche kär-ˈtüsh 

variants or less commonly cartouch

1

: a gun cartridge with a paper case

2

: an ornate or ornamental frame

3

: an oval or oblong figure (as on ancient Egyptian monuments) enclosing a sovereign's name

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web

The new owner can choose to replace this with a cartouche bearing their name or initials. —Cait Bazemore, Robb Report, 5 Nov. 2022

Now the lower part of the door was uncovered for the first time—and there on the door were seal impressions showing a basket, scarab beetle and the sun’s disk, the cartouche of none other than Tutankhamun. —Jo Marchant, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 Nov. 2022

Unlike Ptolemy, Cleopatra and other non-Egyptian names deciphered to date, the name Ramses was Egyptian—a fact that Young believed precluded his cartouche from containing phonetic hieroglyphs. —Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Sep. 2022

In 1822, Champollion studied a cartouche copied from Abu Simbel, a religious site established by the pharaoh Ramses II, or Ramesses. —Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Sep. 2022

The Abu Simbel cartouche contained four symbols, one of which was repeated at the end. —Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Sep. 2022

It is decorated with marquetry ribbons, foliage and festoons, and flanking Jasperware plaques set in a rectangle cartouche. —Natasha Gural, Forbes, 28 June 2022

Wagner’s cartouche — an ornate plaster casting that was one of three in the Fox — is the size of the front of a Volkswagen Beetle. —Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle, 27 Nov. 2021

The bottle’s label has an appealing throwback design, with a version of the cartouche that originally appeared on age statement Jack a century ago. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 17 Sep. 2021

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Word History

Etymology

Middle French cartouche, from Italian cartoccio, from carta

First Known Use

1548, in the meaning defined at sense 1