A Quick and Simple Dictionary

diptych

1. Noun.  A writing tablet consisting of two leaves of rigid material connected by hinges and shutting together so as to protect the writing within.
2. Noun.  (arts) A picture or series of pictures painted on two tablets, usually connected by hinges.
3. Noun.  A double catalogue, containing in one part the names of living, and in the other of deceased, ecclesiastics and benefactors of the church.
4. Noun.  A catalogue of saints.
5. Noun.  Artistically-wrought tablets distributed by consuls, etc. of the later Roman Empire to commemorate their tenure of office; hence transferred to a list of magistrates.
6. Noun.  '''a.''' a literary work consisting of two contrasting parts (as a narrative telling the same story from two opposing points of view) "a ''diptych,'' a pastoral in which the author narrates the birth of Christ ... first as it has impressed the rich countryman Asveer, then as it has been seen by the skeptic Nicodemus" -- François Closset '''b.''' any work made up of two matching parts treating complementary or contrasting pictorial phases of one general topic "the first volume of a ''diptych'' Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert" -- F.E. Egler.