This section is from "The Encyclopaedia Britannica". Also available from Amazon: Great Books of the Western World (60 Volumes).
Bartizan (according to the New English Dictionary, from bertizene, a Scottish corruption of "bratticing" or "brattishing," from O. Fr. bretesche, and meaning a battlemented parapet; apparently first used by Sir Walter Scott), a small battlemented turret, corbelled out at the angle of a wall or tower to protect a warder and enable him to see around him. Bartizans generally are furnished with oylets or arrow-slits.
 
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