1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Merlon

MERLON, in architecture, the solid part of an embattled parapet between the embrasures, sometimes pierced by loopholes. The word is French, adapted from Ital. merlone, possibly a shortened form of mergola, connected with Lat. mergae, pitchfork, or from a diminutive moerulus, from murus (moerus), a wall.