Due Guard
Due Guard is two words, forming one, which scholars fight over and Masons accept as a matter of course. Every Mason knows what it is. None apparently really knows where it came from.
Famous Masonic scholar Albert Mackey (1807-1881) says that it is a contraction of "duly guard". According to the him it is an Americaism and not used abroad now to mean what we mean, even though two hundred years ago it was the name given to a sign.
Some who would dare differ with the great Mackey are convinced that the words are an alteration of "Dieu-garde" -- "God guard" of French origin. We will probably never know for sure where the term originated.
Universally in this country a ritualistic difference is perceived between the due guards and the signs, but as a matter of actual practice a due guard is a sign and cannot be taken from the category of signs by a mere definition. Even the ritualistic definition of a sign does not preclude the due guard from this classification..