em·blem / ˈembləm/ • n. a heraldic device or symbolic object as a distinctive badge of a nation, organization, or family: America's national emblem, the bald eagle. ∎  a thing serving as a symbolic representation of a particular quality or concept: our child would be a dazzling emblem of our love.DERIVATIVES: em·blem·at·ic / ˌembləˈmatik/ adj.em·blem·at·i·cal adj.

emblem a heraldic device or symbolic object as a distinctive badge of a nation, organization, or family. The word is recorded from the late 16th century (as a verb), and comes from Latin emblema ‘inlaid work, raised ornament’, from Greek emblēma ‘insertion’, from emballein ‘throw in, insert’.
emblem book a book of a kind popular in medieval and Renaissance Europe, containing drawings accompanied by allegorical interpretations.

emblem.
1. Picture, sign, or device expressing a moral allegory.

2. Picture of an object serving as a symbolic representation of an abstraction.

3. Device used as a badge of a person, family, Saint, etc. C16 and C17 emblems were often connected with hidden meanings, and books of emblematic designs were important sources of architectural decoration.

emblem †allegorical picture XV; symbolical representation, figured object with symbolic meaning XVII. — L. emblēma inlaid work, raised ornament — Gr. émblēma, -at-, insertion. f. emblē, embállein throw in, insert, f. EM-2 + bállein throw.
Hence emblematic(al) XVII.