[In no dictionary before 1800; not in Todd 1818, nor Craig 1847. Apparently first used by Sir Walter Scott, and due to a misconception of a 17th-c. illiterate Sc. spelling, bertisene, for bertising, i.e., bretising, BRATTICING, f. bretasce (BRATTICE), a. OF. bretesche, ‘battlemented parapet, originally of wood and temporary.’ Bartizan is thus merely a spurious ‘modern antique’ which had no existence in the times to which it is attributed.]
A battlemented parapet at the top of a castle or church; esp. an over-hanging battlemented turret projecting from an angle at the top of a tower, etc.
[c. 1375. Wyclif, Sel. Wks. (1869), I. 191. Þe hiȝest part of his tour is briteysing of charite.
1483. Cath. Angl., 43/1. Bretasynge, propugnaculum.
1651. Rec. Pittenweem, in Statist. Acc., IV. 376 (Jam.). That the morn afternoon the town’s colours be put upon the bertisene of the steeple.]
1808. Scott, Marm., VI. ii. Its varying circle did combine Bulwark, and bartisan, and line. Ibid. (1814), Wav., xiii. A bartizan, or projecting gallery, before the windows of her parlour.
1859. Turner, Dom. Archit., III. iv. 146. Small stone closets, called Bartizans or machicoulis, are thrown out on corbels immediately over the doorway.
attrib. 1801. Scott, Eve of St. John, 127. He mounted the narrow stair, To the bartizan seat. [See also the Introd.]
fig. 1821. Joanna Baillie, Met. Leg. Lady J. B., Concl. 15. Bartizan of braided locks.
