cuirass

cui·rass

1. a. A piece of armor for protecting the breast and back.
   b. The breastplate alone.
2. A defense or protection: “A carefully primped irony, that cuirass of art in the early Eighties, is necessary—a distance so affected as to constitute a hopeless impediment to feeling” (Robert Hughes).
3. Zoology A protective covering of bony plates or scales.

Origin: Middle English curas, from Old French curasse, probably alteration (influenced by Old French cuir, leather) of Old Provençal coirassa, from Late Latin coriācea (vestis), leather (garment), feminine of coriāceus, from Latin corium, hide; see sker-¹ in Indo-European roots.