"The lozenge may have been originally a _fusil_, or _fusee_, as the
French call it: it is a figure longer than the lozenge, and _signifies
a spindle_, which is a woman's instrument."
This writer also quotes _Sylvester de Petra Sancta_, who would have this
shield to "_represent a cushion_, whereon women used to sit and spin, or do
other housewifery."