jessant

From Old French gesant. Doublet of jacent.

That night she finds a locket on her pillow. Gold, in the shape of a heart, Cupids jessant round the perimeter.

1982, TC Boyle, Water Music, Penguin, published 2006, page 61:

(heraldry) Describing a charge which appears over, or covers, another charge as well as the field.


chevronel

chevronels (plural)
cheveronel (alternative)
chevronelle (alternative)

CHEVRONEL, a diminutive of chevron, and as ſuch only containing half a chevron.

1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., volume II, page 183:

(heraldry) A bearing like a chevron, but of only half its width.


triparted

a cross triparted


unguled

Supporters, dexter, a unicorn ar. armed, maned, and unguled or; sinister, a lion, gu. Motto, In te Domine speravi, In thee , 0 Lord , have I put my trust.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry, page 9:

Supporters - Two pegasi, ermine, winged, bridled, crined, and unguled, or, each charged on the shoulder with a fleur de lis, azure. Motto - Virtute, non verbis.

1846, William Skey, The Heraldic Calendar: A List of the Nobility and Gentry Whose Arms are Registered, and Pedigrees Recorded in the Herald's Office in Ireland, page 46:

Argent, three roebucks passant regardant gules, attired and unguled sable. Crest - On a wreath of the colours, a demi-roebuck gules, attired and unguled sable.

1915, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Book of Public Arms: A Complete Encyclopædia of All Royal, Territorial, Municipal, Corporate, Official, and Impersonal Arms, London : T.C. & E.C. Jack, page 430:

(heraldry) Having hoofs of a tincture different from the body.


fructed

Derived from Latin frūctus (“fruit”) + -ed.

He beareth, Argent, on a Mount in a Base, a Pine Apple tree, fructed, Proper, by the name of Pine.

1660, John Guillim, Francis Nower, A Display of Heraldie, page 131:

HASKELL, on a mount, an apple-tree fructed, ppr. pl. 94, n. 33.

1851, John Peter Elven, The book of family crests, page 229:

A dexter Cubit arm, couped, vested sable, cuffed or, charged with a Cross paté of the last, holding in the hand an Oak branch fructed all proper

1870-1881, John Edwin Cussans, History of Hertfordshire:

(heraldry, of a tree or plant) Bearing fruit or acorns.


undé

ondé (alternative)
ondy (alternative)
oundy (alternative)
undee (alternative)
undy (alternative)

The achievement of the Lord Maderty is, or, three bars undé gules, and, on a canton argent, a lion's head erased, within a double tressure counter-flowered gules;[…]

1804, Alexander Nisbet, A system of heraldry, page 66:

Argent, a fesse undé gules; […]

1898, Edward Singleton Holden, A Primer of Heraldry for Americans, page 109:

(archaic, heraldry) Waving or wavy; applied to ordinaries, or division lines.


tenné

tenné:

(heraldry) A rarely-used tincture of orange or bright brown.


tenné

Arms : Quarterly of eight , I or a lion rampant tenné, on a chief sable three escallops or, 2 azure a tower domed argent, 3 barry or and gules,[…]

1985, Stained Glass Before 1700 in American Collections: Corpus Vitrearum Checklist:


viroled

ferruled (alternative)
veruled (alternative)

Az., a saltire or, in base a hunting-horn arg., viroled vert and stringed of the second, on a chief of the third a buckle in pale of the field between two cushions gu. COLLOW OF AUCHENCHEYNE (1773).

1893, James Balfour Paul, An Ordinary of Arms Contained in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, page 200:

(heraldry) Furnished with viroles; said of a horn or bugle whose rings are of different tincture.


woolpack

From Middle English wolpak, wullepak, equivalent to wool + pack.

(heraldry) A charge resembling a pillow or cushion.


virole

From French virole (“ferrule”). See ferrule.

[…] except when he has a hood, bells, virols, or rings, and leashes, in which case he is said to be hooded, belled, jessed, and leashed; […]

1836, Sir Daniel Keyte Sandford, The Popular Encyclopedia;: pt. 1: England-Germany (literature and science), page 698:

The Florentine GUICCIARDINI bore : Azure, three hunting-horns argent, the mouth-pieces and viroles or, banded gules. Gules, three trumpets fessways in pale argent, is the canting coat of CALL (Baronets).

1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 386:

Viroled- (vi-rold') Furnished with a virole or viroles. Said of a bugle or horn when borne with rings of a different tincture from the bugle itself.

1908, Arthur Francis Pimbley, Pimbley's Dictionary of Heraldry: Together with an Illustrated Supplement, page 67:

(heraldry) A ring surrounding a bugle or hunting horn.


enfiled

(heraldry) Having an object, such as the head of a man or animal, impaled on it.


fitchy

fitchée (alternative)
fitchee (alternative)
fitché (alternative)
fiché (alternative)
fichée (alternative)

From French fiché, past participle of ficher (“to fasten”), Old French fichier (“to pierce”). Compare fish.

(heraldry) Sharpened to a point; pointed.


rustre

(heraldry) A lozenge with a smaller round hole in the centre, showing the field (rarely used).


countersalient

(heraldry) Leaping in opposite directions (as if past or away from each other); said of two figures on a coat of arms.


gyronny

gyronné (alternative)
gironné (alternative)
gironnée (alternative)

(heraldry, of an escutcheon) Covered with gyrons, or divided into several gyrons, typically eight.


wolfsangel

From German Wolfsangel (literally “wolf hook”).

bor

(heraldry, symbology) A Z-shaped symbol, reminiscent of the Germanic wolf hook hunting device


anserated

Perhaps related to serrated because the ends are often also parted (to terminate in two animal heads, as with a cross gringolée).

an anserated cross

(heraldry, uncommon) Having the extremities terminate in the heads of eagles, lions, etc.


opinicus

Two opinici vert, beaked sable, wings gules, support the insignia of the Plasterers’ Company.

1847, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table, Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress, Oxford: John Henry Parker, page 233:

Urcheons, bagwyns, opinici and musimons, represented statant, sejant or segreant, and in every variety of metal, colour and fur, completed an exhibition which was both boastfully heraldic and pompously powerful.

No blood need be shed in settling these anatomical problems, as opinici are of little importance, there being barely a dozen examples.

1963, Julian Franklyn, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry, page 150:

Even when they ascend to the loftiest perch for their kind and earn the right to serve on the Council of Keythongs, the wingless ones are still not permitted the same rights as gryphons and opinici.

2019, Paula Grover, The Gryphon, FriesenPress, →ISBN, page 22:

(heraldry) A heraldic imaginary creature with an eagle's head, a short tail, and sometimes wings.


nebulated

en-adj

nebulated (comparative more nebulated, superlative most nebulated)

more nebulated (comparative)
most nebulated (superlative)


guly

guly (comparative more guly, superlative most guly)

more guly (comparative)
most guly (superlative)

those fatal guly dragons

1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavvses that hitherto have Hindred it; republished as Will Taliaferro Hale, editor, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England (Yale Studies in English; LIV), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1916, →OCLC:

(obsolete, heraldry) Of or pertaining to gules; red.


nowed

From French noué, past participle of nouer (“to knot”), from Latin nodare. See nodated.

a serpent nowed


trefoiled

If the shield is regarded as one showing dimidiated arms, then it may be read as (dexter) gules, a cross trefoiled and voided or, . .. (sinister) gules (2), on two pallets argent, ladders (2) semé (?) azure.

1993, Adolph S. Cavallo, Medieval Tapestries in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, →ISBN, page 141:

(heraldry) Having a three-lobed extremity or extremities; of a cross: having ends which terminate in trefoils (similar or identical to bottony).

There is a plain trefoiled window above in the tower; the lower part of the spire having two lancet windows, with a circle […] The pulpit is of modern oak, of five panels, each panel being divided into two trefoiled arched partitions;[…]

2014 March 28, James Conway Walter, A History of Horncastle (Illustrated), Lulu Press, Inc, →ISBN:

(especially heraldry) Ornamented with trefoils projecting from the edges, as a bearing, partition, etc.


pheon

(heraldry) A bearing representing the head of a dart or javelin, with long barbs which are engrailed on the inner edge.


counterpassant

Arg. a bend engr. betw. in chief a lion pass., and in base a lion counterpassant gu.

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, page 202:

(heraldry) Passant in opposite directions; said of two animals, or of one animal in relation to another animal on the same shield.


Norroy

From Old French norht, north, nort (“north”) + roi (“king”), Anglo-Norman roy (“king”).

(historical, heraldry) The most northern of the English kings-of-arms, whose jurisdiction lay north of the Trent. Since 1943, the jurisdiction is Norroy and Ulster.


langued

From French langue (“tongue”). See language.

[…] Armed, as heralds cant, and langued, / Or, as the vulgar say, sharp-fanged; […]

1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 2:

lions […] represented as armed and langued gules

1866, John Edwin Cussans, The Grammar of Heraldry:


recursant

From Latin recursans, recursantis, present participle of recursare (“to run back”), v. freq. of recurrere. See recur.

Argent, an eagle recursant, wings overture, sable.

1870, Routledge's Magazine for Boys, page 64:

(heraldry, especially of an eagle) Having its back towards the observer.


engrail

en-verb

engrail (third-person singular simple present engrails, present participle engrailing, simple past and past participle engrailed)

engrails (present singular third-person)
engrailing (participle present)
engrailed (participle past)
engrailed (past)

He crossed through the high grass and went up the slope, climbing with handholds in the new turf until he gained the crest and turned to look down on the river and the city beyond, casting a gray glance along that varied world, the pieced plowland, the houses, the odd grady of the small metropolis against the green and blooming hills and the flat bow of the river like a serpentine trench poured with dull slag save where the wind engrailed its face and it shimmered lightly in the sun.

1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, page 120:

(transitive, heraldry, archaic) To indent with small curves.


tressured

/ˈtɹɛʃə(ɹ)d/

These instances, to say nothing of the tressured lion of the Scottish kings, are enough to show the complete acceptance of heraldry in Scotland at that time.

1914, John Horne Stevenson, Heraldry in Scotland, page 24:

When at sunrise the tressured lion was hoisted before the Lord-Lieutenant's pavilion, it was greeted by a salute of trumpets, and such a salute it was, in 1645, that first warned Argyll that Montrose, the King's Lieutenant,[…]

1956, Sir Thomas Innes of Learney, Scots Heraldry: A Practical Handbook on the Historical Principles and Modern Application of the Art and Science, Genealogical Publishing Com, →ISBN, page 216:

(heraldry) Provided with or bound with a tressure; arranged in the form of a tressure.


barruly

From Middle English berlē, beurlē, from Old French barlé, burlé, barelé, burelé.

(heraldry) Traversed (transversely) by barrulets or small bars.


interfretted

Crest: Two laurel branches interfretted proper.

1910, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, page 1025:

Ermine, a Paternoster having the upper limb of the crucifix bent to dexter, gold, and interfretted with three bendlets gules, all between two dragons' heads erased sable, jessant-de-lys, or.[…]

1921, Herman Joseph Heuser, American Ecclesiastical Review, page 393:

(heraldry) Interlaced; linked together; said of charges or bearings.


barways

en-adv

barways (comparative more barways, superlative most barways)

more barways (comparative)
most barways (superlative)


rousant

(heraldry, of a bird, postpositive) Rising; represented in profile with its wings raised and typically also addorsed.


verdoy

French verdoyer (“to become green”). See verdant.

Gules a Bordure Argent charged with Verdoy of Trefoils slipped proper, that is Vert.

1693, Richard Blome, The Art of Heraldry, in two parts ... the second edition, page 21:

SCOTT of Hedderwick, a younger son of Scott of Logie, argent, a fesse crenellé, between three lions' heads erased, gules; within a bordure of the last, verdoy of six flower-de-luces of the first.

1804, Alexander Nisbet, A system of heraldry, speculative and practical, page 172:

Quarterly; 1st and 4th, the arms of France and England, quarterly; 2d, arms of Scotland; and 3d, those of Ireland; the whole within a border compone, argent and gules, the first charged with verdoy of roses of the second[…]

1827, Encyclopaedias, Encyclopaedia Edinensis: or, Dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature, page 163:

(heraldry) Charged with leaves, fruits, flowers, etc.; said of a border.


countertrippant

(heraldry) Trippant in opposite directions.


enarched

(heraldry) Bent into a curve; said of a bend or other ordinary.


flanch

Old French flanche (“flank”). See flank.

(heraldry) A bearing consisting of a circle segment encroaching on the field from the side, and always occurring in pairs.


debruised

See debruise. Compare Old French debruisier (“to shatter, break”). Compare bruise.

uder

A lion is debruised when a bend or other ordinary is placed over it.

The lion of England and the lilies of France without the baton sinister, under which, according to the laws of heraldry, they were debruised in token of his illegitimate birth.

1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter II, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:

Serpent, embowed, the head debruised, or surmounted of the tail; also blazoned, […]

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry, page 5:

(heraldry) Surmounted by an ordinary (or something else).


umbrated

This window consists of three lights, with trefoil arches in their heads. There remained, in the seventeenth century, a shield of stained glass in this window, bearing a lion rampant umbrated, over all a bend gules, Sutton.

1840, George Poulson, The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, in the East-Riding of the County of York: Including the Abbies of Meaux and Swine, With the Priories of Nunkeeling and Burstall, page 260:

He then introduces some fanciful remarks about arms being umbrated or shadowed, an idea apparently arising from their […]

1865, The Herald and Genealogist, page 96:

3 dolphins bowed and umbrated—Caldicote.

1894, Samuel Tymms, Charles Harold Evelyn-White, East Anglian, Or, Notes and Queries on Subjects Connected with the Counties of Suffolk, Cambridge, Essex and Norfolk, page 373:


embowed

A dexter and sinister arm embowed in armour, each hand grasping a spear erect […]

1864, Bernard Burke, The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales:

(heraldry) Bent, curved or arched like a bow.


campaned

For quotations using this term, see Citations:campaned.

(heraldry, uncommon) Furnished with campanes (bells).


guze

Uncertain. Attested since at least 1562. According to "A Glossary of Terms used in Heraldry" by James Parker (published in 1894) it comes from Turkish göz, meaning “eye”.

(heraldry) A roundlet of the sanguine tincture, which is blazoned without mention of the tincture.


counterchanged

If the field is divided palewise, or and azure, and cross is borne counterchanged, that part of the cross which comes on the azure side will be or, and that on the or side will be azure.

(heraldry) Having the tinctures exchanged mutually.


appaumé

appaumy (alternative)
apaumy (alternative)
appaumée (alternative)
apaumé (alternative)
apaumée (alternative)
appaumee (alternative)
apaumee (alternative)

(heraldry, of a hand) Open and extended so as to show the palm with thumb and fingers at full length.


morné

From French morné. Possibly doublet of mourn.

morne (alternative)
mortine (alternative)

A lion morné appears as a canting charge in the coat of the old French family of DE MORNAY : - Fascé d'argent, et de gueules, au lion morné de sable couronné d'or brochant sur le tout. I have noticed that the lion morné occurs in the arms of several old Breton families, KERBOURIOU, KERBESCAT, KERANGUEN, etc.

1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 218:

[…] Self-appointed 'reformers' of heraldic terminology will contend that since lions morné and lions eviré have have barely an existence in current armory, the words themselves are mere textbook fill-up […]

1963, Julian Franklyn, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry, page 92:

(heraldry, attitude of beasts) Rampant without teeth, beak, tongue, claws, etc.


fracted

Chevron. (Stafford.) 4. Chevron ployé. (Moll.) 7. Chevronels. (Clare.) 10. Chevron fracted. (Rozier de Linage.) 2. Chevron checquy. (Sempill.) 5. Chevron reversed. (Bulgarini.) 8. Chevron cotised. (Clutton.)[…]

1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 136:

[…] gules a chevron raguly fracted in the centre argent (F.)

1902, Joseph Foster, Some Feudal Coats of Arms from Heraldic Rolls 1298-1418: Illustrated with 830 Zinco Etchings from Effigies, Brasses and Coats of Arms, page 83:

[…] in base saltireways a pipe, bowl up, and a tomahawk, blade up and turned outward, the shaft fracted, all gules.

1908, Ralph Adams Cram, Christian Art: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine Devoted to Current Church Building, American and Foreign, and the Allied Ecclesiological Arts, with Expert Discussions of All Topics Relating to Christian Archaeology, page 70:

(heraldry) Having a part displaced or broken; said of an ordinary or other charge.


herisson

French hérisson, hedgehog. Doublet of urchin.


bicorporate

A bicorporate lion, gardant, rampant, counter-rampant, coward, is seen in the arms of John Northampton, Lord Mayor of London[…]

1857, The Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Members of the English Church, page 152:

Gules, a bicorporate lion guardant rampant counter-rampant coward or, ducally crowned azure - John NORTHAMPTON, Lord Mayor of London, 1381 and 1382.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 378:


fitched

Argent, two bars wavy sable, and on a chief of the second three crosses patée fitched or, to the name of Hurbey

(Can we date this quote?), William Newton, Display of Heraldry:


shakefork

CUNNINGHAM of GLENGARNOCK, descended of a second Son of Henry Cuninghame of Kilmaures, and his Spouse Riddel Heiress of Glengarnock […] carry Argent, a Shakefork Sable, charged with a Cinque foil of the first: […]

1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 196:

CUNYNGHAME of Milneraig and Livingston (L. O., 1775). Argent, a shakefork sable between three fleurs-de-lis azure, one in chief and two in flank.

1910, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, page 403:

(heraldry) A pall, especially one which stops short of the edges of the shield and which has pointed ends.


escarbuncle

Old French escharboncle, see Modern French escaboucle.

(heraldry) A carbuncle (heraldic charge).


escaloped

en-adj

escaloped (comparative more escaloped, superlative most escaloped)

more escaloped (comparative)
most escaloped (superlative)

(heraldry) Covered with a scaly pattern resembling a series of escalop shells, each of which issues from between two others. (Compare papelonné.)


engrailment

en-noun

engrailment (countable and uncountable, plural engrailments)

(heraldry) Indentation in curved lines, as of a line of division or the edge of an ordinary.


charbocle

charbocles (plural)
charboncle (alternative)

The horse is entirely covered by a flowing checkered trapper, with a charbocle like that of the earl's crest, fixed between the ears.

1914, Surrey Archaeological Collections, page 125:

The device of the charbocle is thought to emanate from an ornamental or more probably a constructional part of a shield and is most often associated with the kings of Navarre or the counts and dukes of Cleves, and as a difference with the family of Mandeville. The centre of the charbocle was sometimes known as the heart and the possibility that the heart depicted at the centre of the Basset charbocle may be a pun cannot be ignored.

2002, Laurence Keen, Eileen Scarff, Windsor, page 133:

The armorial decoration of the inside of the shield, in the form of a charbocle on a ground powdered with fleurs-de-lis, was recognised by Gough as referring to Joan of Navarre, the second wife of Henry IV.

2003, Jenny Stratford, The Lancastrian Court: Proceedings of the 2001 Harlaxton Symposium, page 132:

The oval medallion consists of a crowned shield with two rampant lions as supporters. The crowned lion on the left represents Berg whereas the lion on the right symbolizes Jülich. The triparted shield consists of a charbocle (Cleve) , a fess checky (Mark), and three chevrons (Ravensburg).

2004, Jamestown Rediscovery, 1994-2004, page 4:


pily

en-adj

pily (comparative more pily, superlative most pily)

more pily (comparative)
most pily (superlative)

bend pily, chief pily

Milles very improperly uses the term for per pale indented throughout, or barry pily.

1847, Henry Gough, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table, Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress, page 48:

Barry pily of eight or and gu.

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, page 54:

(A) A chief pily. (B) Similar, but made to form a bordure with 2 teeth in chief. (C) 3 piles - - - (partly underground). (D) Argent 3 piles checky and on a chief checky 3 annulets or. (E) On a chief pily 3 annulets.

1914, Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society, Transactions and Journal of Proceedings, page 69:

(heraldry) Marked by many narrow piles (wedges).


counter-couchant

counter-couchant bulls

(heraldry) Lying down, with the heads facing in opposite directions.


marined

From marine + -ed; compare French mariné.

Some other of the marined animals deserve special attention. Sea-horses in the earliest heraldic examples closely resemble the queer fish known by that name (the hippocampus), but classic art had furnished quite another type: the forequarters of a horse, with mane and hoofs, and the hindquarters replaced by a fish's tail.

1915, Guy Cadogan Rothery, A. B. C. of Heraldry, page 76:

The menagerie of blazonry has been enlarged by representing nearly all of the animals at times with fish-tails, when they are said to be marined.

1924, Clark Barnaby Firestone, The Coasts of Illusion: A Study of Travel Tales, page 67:

He was a marined, a merman, neither one thing nor the other.

The capitals of the four columns that support the wall between the pronaos and the naos (Ilieș, 1969) are decorated with acanthus leaves, with the following sculptures: the eagle holding the lamb in its claws (it symbolizes the simple man, innocence, kindness), with an angel on its flanks (the messenger of God, the guardian who watches over each man in order to keep him away from evil and to incite him to goodness) with his arms clasped onto his chest (fig. 16); a fantastic animal – marined "lion" (with the lower part of the body terminated in a fish tail, like that of the mermaids) (Pastoureau, 2008) (fig. 17).

2020, Laurentiu Stefan Szemkovics, Camelia Teodorescu, “Zoomorphic Shields and Motifs From the Colțea Church in Bucharest”, in Quaestus:

(chiefly heraldry) Having the lower part of the body like a fish.


cramponee

cramponné (alternative)
cramponnée (alternative)
cramponé (alternative)
cramponée (alternative)

(heraldry) Having a cramp or square piece at the end; said of a cross.


engouled

Via Middle English from Old French engoulé, past participle of engouler.

engoulé (alternative)
engoulee (alternative)
engoulée (alternative)

an infant engouled by a serpent

(heraldry) Partly swallowed; disappearing in the jaws of anything.


engoulé

a bend engoulé of dragons

(heraldry) Alternative form of engouled.


cottised

(heraldry, of a bend, bar, fess, chevron, etc) Set between two thin lines (cottises).


ajouré

ajouré (comparative more ajouré, superlative most ajouré)

more ajouré (comparative)
most ajouré (superlative)
ajoure (alternative)

Borrowed from French ajouré (“perforated”).

(heraldry) Depicted in the same color as the field in order to imply that one can see through the element to the field; voided of the field.


inclave

Per Fess, (or party per Fess) Pattee, (or Inclave) Argent and Azure. […] Gules, a Chief ingrail'd, Or. Tho' this Line is form'd after the Manner of the invecked, yet it very much differs therefrom, because […]

1735, Francis Nichols, The British Compendium: Or, Rudiments of Honour ..., page 23:

PLATE VII. CHIEFS. Fig. 1 Chief, the base masoned. […] 7 With one embattlement. 8 Inclave. 9 Arched. In base a Point impaled.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia heraldica, or Complete dictionary of heraldry: Reference to the plates:

(heraldry) Resembling a series of dovetails; said of a line of division, such as the border of an ordinary.


cottise

Compare French côté (“side”), Latin costa (“rib”).

(heraldry) A diminutive of the bendlet, containing one half its area or one quarter the area of the bend: a thin line borne around another charge.


cottise

en-verb

cottise (third-person singular simple present cottises, present participle cottising, simple past and past participle cottised)

cottises (present singular third-person)
cottising (participle present)
cottised (participle past)
cottised (past)
cotise (alternative)

(heraldry, transitive) To border a bend, etc., with cottises, barrulets, etc.


torteau

From Old French torteau, tortel, from Latin tortus (“twisted”). See tort.

(heraldry) A roundel of a red colour (gules).


crénelé

crenelee (alternative)
crenely (alternative)
crenellé (alternative)
crenellee (alternative)
crenelly (alternative)


trippant

From trip + -ant, alteration of tripping, present participle of trip. Compare Scots trippand (“tripping”), present participle of trip (“to skip, go nimbly, trip”).

[Borne by the late 1737.] Richard Davies, Esq. of Kent, 1833.] Davison, gu. a stag, trippant, or.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry:

Crest, a buck roe-bucks, trippant, or, as many quatrefoils gu.

1830, Thomas Robson, The British Herald, page 82:

a buck trippant within an orle […] three bucks trippant […]

1844, John Burke, Bernard Burke, Encyclopædia of Heraldry, page 349:

(heraldry) Represented as walking or trotting, usually with one of the forehooves lifted while the remaining three are on the ground.


sarcelled

From Old French cercel, from Latin circellus, diminutive of circulus (“circle”).

Cross, quarterly, quartered, couped, ends sarcelled and reverted.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry, page 9:

(heraldry) Sarcelly, having curled ends (compare moline).

1828-40, Berry, Encycl. Her. I"
Cross pattée sarcelled at bottom in the form of a ᴧ reversed.

Cross moline sarcelled, or voided throughout, cross recercelée, or recersile, or recercelée voided or disjoined, which has also been called a cross fleury biparted. This is borne by the names of Knollys, or Knowles, and Verney. Gules, a cross moline sarcelled argent. BEC. […]

1847, Henry Gough, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table, Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress, page 101:

(heraldry) Cut through the middle, or voided with the ends left open (unconnected).


patonce

patoncy (alternative)
patoncée (alternative)
patoncé (alternative)

Compare French patte d'once (“paw of an ounce”).

(heraldry) Having the arms growing broader and floriated toward the end; said of a cross.


patonce

(heraldry) A cross whose four arms expand in curves from the centre, with floriated ends.


paly

Compare French palé. See pale (“a stake”).

(heraldry) Palewise; vertically striped.


torsed

en-adj

torsed (comparative more torsed, superlative most torsed)

more torsed (comparative)
most torsed (superlative)


bezanty

bezanté (alternative)
bezantée (alternative)

(heraldry) Covered with bezants; semé (strewn) with bezants.


counter-rampant

(heraldry, of two animals) Both rampant and facing each other.


enarmed

Old French enarmé (“equipped with a handle”).

uder

For quotations using this term, see Citations:enarmed.

(heraldry) Having horns, hoofs, etc. of a different colour from the body.


counter-paly

French contre-palé, equivalent to counter- + paly.

(heraldry) Paly, and then divided fesswise, so that each vertical piece is cut into two, having the colours used alternately or counterchanged.


à bouche

Borrowed from French à bouche (“with mouth”).

Dish, ornamented with blue and yellow flowers and foliage; in the centre a shield à bouche : Per fess or and azure, four chains conjoined in saltire by an annulet, all counterchanged.

1903, Marion Harry Spielmann, The Magazine of Art, page 351:

Upon a shield à bouche, scalloped at the base , are the arms : Azure two pallets argent, on a chief a lion's jamb erased in fesse azure, for ARRIGHI.

1904, Albert Van de Put, Hispano-Moresque Ware of the XV. Century: A Contribution to Its History and Chronology Based Upon Armorial Specimens, page 68:

(heraldry) Having a bouche on the dexter side.


Greek cross

(heraldry) A cross with orthogonal arms of equal length.


ancrée

ancré (alternative)
anchory (alternative)

(heraldry) Anchored (“having the extremities turned back”).


merlion

Probably a variant of merlin, from Middle English merlioun, merlinge, marlyon, merlion, merlone, merlyon, from Old French emerillon, esmerillon, from Frankish *smiril (“falcon, hawk”), from Proto-Germanic *smirilaz (“falcon, merlin”).

merlette

mythological bird in French heraldry depicted with no beak or feet

He beareth two coats quarterly, with an Inſcocheon of pretence, viz. The firſt, per bend nebulee, Or and Sable, a Lion Rampant counterchained, by the name of Sympſon; The ſecond, Argent, a Feſſe, Gules, between three Merlions, or Sparhawks, Sable, beaks and legs, Or, by the name of Oneſlow; […]

1666, John Guillim, “Section VI, Chapter I”, in A Display of Herauldry: […], 6th edition, London: […] John Williams […], and Joshua Kirton […]; Humphrey Tuckey […], and Francis Tyton […], →OCLC, page 384:

Martlet, or merlion, a fabulous bird, of constant adoption in armorials, shaped like a martin or swallow, and always drawn without legs, with short tufts of feathers instead, divided into two parts, somewhat like an erasure, and forming, as it were, thighs. This is the distinctive mark of the fourth son.

[1884, Bernard Burke, “Dictionary of Terms Used in Heraldry”, in The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; […], 2nd edition, London: Harrison & Sons, […], →OCLC, page xli:

(heraldry) A depiction of a bird similar to a house martin or swallow with stylized feet; a martlet.


cadency

en-noun

cadency (countable and uncountable, plural cadencies)

(heraldry) Any systematic way of distinguishing similar coats of arms belonging to members of the same family.


chabot

Chabots[:] Or three chabots gu.

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, page 839:

Over all an escutcheon of pretence : 1 and 4 , Gules, nine mascles conjoined or, 3, 3, 3 (Rohan); 2 and 3, Or, three chabots hauriant gules (Chabot).

1901, Ex Libris Society, The Journal of the Ex Libris Society, page 66:

"Or, three chabots gules” is the crest of a French family of the name of Chabot.

1904, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopaedia of Armory, London : T.C.; & E.C. Jack, page 186:

Arms : Gules three gemels gold on a quarter silver three chabots erect gules.

1928, New England Historic Genealogical Society. Committee on Heraldry, A Roll of Arms:

(heraldry, rare) A kind of fish, mainly found on the coat of arms of the Chabot family ("or, three chabots gules").


escroll

Or, on a bend sable, three ostrich feathers argent, the quills transfixed through as many escrolls gold. - Sir Roger de CLARENDON, [natural son of Edward the Black Prince].

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 238:

(heraldry) A long strip or scroll (resembling a ribbon or a band of parchment), sometimes bearing a motto or other text, either (rarely) used as a charge upon the shield, or placed above the shield and supporting the crest, or below the shield.


masculy

en-adj

masculy (comparative more masculy, superlative most masculy)

more masculy (comparative)
most masculy (superlative)

Masculy arg. and gu. William FITZWILLIAM, Y. Sire Robert POGEYS, N. PORGYES OF POGERS, co. Bucks. Sir John RIVERS, J, K.
Masculy arg. and sa. BEROMY, Cumberland. Sire T. de BEZOM, N. Nicolas de CROFTS, Y. […]

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, page 977:

Masculy, gules and ermin, de la Roketey.

1808, Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Freebridge (concluded). North Greenhow. Happing. Holt. Launditch, page 253:

There are some number of coats which are said to have had a field masculy. Of course this is quite possible, and the difference between a field masculy and a field fretty is that in the latter the separate pieces of which it is composed interlace each other; but when the field is masculy it is all one fretwork surface, the field being visible through the voided apertures.

1909, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, A Complete Guide to Heraldry, page 148:

(heraldry) Bearing or composed of mascles.


bourdonnée

A shield of arms : bendy of six, over all a cross bourdonnée fitchée.

1898, British Museum. Department of Manuscripts, Walter de Gray Birch, Catalogue of Seals in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, page 185:

Crest - Upon a crest coronet or, charged with a cross bourdonnée azure, a pelican argent, holding in the bill a nail or. Motto - "Sine labe nota." Residence - Henley House, Avenue Road, Regent's Park, N.W. PILKINGTON[…]

1910, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, page 1282:

(heraldry, of a cross) Having the ends terminating in rounded knobs like those on a pilgrim's staff; pommetty.


raguled

Compare French raguer (“to chafe, fret, rub”), or English rag.


escalop

Old French escalope (“shell”), French escalope (“a sort of cut of meat”).

uder

(heraldry) A bearing or charge consisting of an escalop shell, considered as a sign that the bearer had been on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.


tricorporate

For quotations using this term, see Citations:tricorporate.

(heraldry) Represented with three bodies conjoined to one head.


merlette

From Late Middle English [Term?], from Anglo-Norman merlet (from merle (“blackbird”) + -et (“suffix forming a noun”)), or from Middle French merlette (“little blackbird; merlette (heraldic charge)”) (from merle (“blackbird”)—formerly a feminine noun) + -ette (“diminutive suffix for a feminine noun”). Merle is from Latin merula (“blackbird”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ems- (“black; blackbird”).

der

(heraldry) In French heraldry, a depiction of a mythological bird without beak or feet.

martlet

depiction of a bird in English heraldry with stylized feet


crancelin

From French crancelin, from German Kränzlein (“small garland”).

A chaplet of rue, sometimes called a crancelin, is blazoned bend-wise in the shield of Saxony – Barry often or and sa., over all a chaplet of rue vert.

1914, Charles Boutel, AC Fox-Davies, The Handbook to English Heraldry, page 151:

His arms show the crancelin of Saxony impaled with the crossed swords of the Marshalcy of the Empire which went with the Saxon Electorate.

1991, Jiří Louda, Michael Maclagan, Lines of Succession, page 204:

The crancelin, running from upper left to bottom right, took the form of a crenellated garland in deep green.

2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 565:

(heraldry) A chaplet of rue, as used as a charge on the arms of Saxony.


octofoil

(heraldry) A stylized flower or leaf with eight lobes; a double quatrefoil.


twifoil

(heraldry) A head of two leaves growing out of a stem.


dufoil

From duo (“two”) + foil (“leaf”). Compare twifoil.


ancred

(heraldry) Alternative form of anchored.


bevilled

(heraldry) Notched with an angle like that enclosed by a carpenter's bevel; said of a partition line of a shield.


patté

French patté, from patte (“paw, foot”). Compare English patten.

pattée (alternative)
pattee (alternative)
patty (alternative)
paté (alternative)
patée (alternative)

(heraldry, of a cross) Narrow at the inner end, and very broad at the other end, or having its arms of that shape


unquartered

An heir may bear his father's arms unquartered, but he is not entitled by the common law of arms to bear his mother's so.

1914, John Horne Stevenson, Heraldry in Scotland, page 337:

John's father, also John, whose seal was seen somewhere by Streatfeild (in whose MSS. there is a drawing of the seal) used a plain unquartered shield of the Pashley crowned and double-queued lion[…]

(chiefly heraldry) Not divided into quarters.


erminois

(heraldry) In blazon, ermine with a field or instead of argent (gold with black spots).

guldhermelin

of gold colour with black spots on a coat of arms


counter-ermine

(heraldry) A tincture consisting of a black background with ermine shapes in white.


cordeliere

cordelieres (plural)
cordelière (alternative)

(heraldry) A decorative cord, especially that surrounding a blazon used to display a widow's coat of arms.


cramponned

(heraldry) Bent over at the ends like a crampon.


lambel

(heraldry) A label (charge from which pendants are hung).


shambrough

(heraldry) A depiction of a boat or ship.


raguly

(heraldry) Having short alternating projections and depressions; notched in regular diagonal breaks; said of a line, or a bearing having such an edge.


zule

Those of Zulestein, are Gules, three Zules, Or.

1724, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldry, page 117:

ZULE : a chess rook : so called in the coat of ZULEISTEIN (gules, three zules argent, a label of three points of the last,) borne on an escutcheon surtout by the earls of Rochford.

1847, Henry Gough, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table, Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress, page 330:

FREDERICK NASSAU DE ZUYLESTEIN, EARL OF ROCHFORD Quarterly, [...] over all, in an escutcheon Gules three zules Argent, two and one, for Zuylestein.

1914, Joint Publishing Committee Representing the London County Council and the London Survey Committee, Survey of London:

(heraldry) One of the three stylized pillars (often considered chess rooks) in the canting arms of Frederick Nassau de Zuylestein.


armorially

(heraldry) In terms of or by means of armorial bearings.


gobony

From gobbon (“piece, portion, slice”) + -y, from Old French gobon, gobet (“piece”). Cognate with English gubbins (“assorted stuff”).

Argent, a lion rampant azure, debruised by a bend gobony ermine and gules.

1899, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families, T.C. & E.C. Jack, page 320:

There is no difficulty whatever in drawing a gobony or a checky bordure.

1945, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 99, New England Historic Genealogical Society, page 278:

The coat of Steenhuse appears a second time, no. 638, but here it is in the usual form, Bendy of six or and azure with the ombre of a lion over all and a border gobony argent and gules. An odd feature is that the segments of the gobony borders are cut diagonally[…].

1949, Archaeologia, Or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, Volume 93, Society of Antiquaries of London, page 132:


bar sinister

en-noun

bar sinister (usually uncountable, plural bars sinister)

bars sinister (plural)
Bar-Sinister (alternative)
bar-sinister (alternative)

"A king's son, though with the bar sinister on his shield, is at least a match for this marmoset of a marquis."

1825, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 24, in The Talisman:

At any rate no bar sinister appeared on the imperial escutcheon.

1906, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 1, in Sir John Constantine:

They were descended from the Earls of Halifax and Scarbrough but, as the bar sinister in the Savile coat of arms suggests, illegitimately.

2001 May 7, “Obituary: Henry Lumley-Savile”, in The Independent, UK, retrieved 2014-04-04:

(heraldry, considered nonstandard) A bend sinister or baton sinister in a coat of arms.


baton sinister

(heraldry) A kind of bend sinister, in which a narrow strip extends from the lower left to the upper right of the shield in a coat of arms but does not extend to the edges of the shield


counterpotent

counterpotents (plural)
counter-potent (alternative)

(heraldry) A fur differing from potent in the arrangement of the patches: the T shapes are alternatingly upright and inverted, such that the broad side of each T touches the broad sides of the adjacent row's like-colored T.


cross bottony

(heraldry) A cross having each arm terminating in three rounded lobes, forming a sort of trefoil.


aylet

(heraldry) A black bird with red feet and beak.


sejant rampant

FOLEY, Baron, (Foley), a lion, sejant, rampant, or, between paws an escutcheon, charged with the family arms. Ut prosim. Pl. 22, cr. 13. FOLEY, Surr., a lion, rampant, ar., holding the same. Pl. 67, cr. 5. […] MACPHERSON, a grey cat, sejant, rampant. Touch not the cat bot the glove.

1860, James Fairbairn, Fairbairns Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland: Text, pages 186, 314:

(3.) 1810. Obverse; a lion, sejant-rampant, facing left, holding a large key with his paws; inscription, PAYABLE AT ROBERT KEELING & SONS, GIBRALTAR. Reverse; similar to first reverse, but the key is omitted, and the date is very large[…]

1881, The Coin Collector's Journal, page 21:

A Scottish Lion sejant usually has his fore paws raised in the air, and in English terms of blazon would be described as "Sejant erect" or "Sejant rampant."

1914, Charles Boutell, The Handbook to English Heraldry, page 86:

(heraldry) Sitting with one or especially both of its forefeet lifted up.


escutcheon of pretence

escutcheon of pretence (plural escutcheons of pretence)

(heraldry, UK) An escutcheon used to display the arms of the bearer's wife; not commonly used unless she is an heiress.


Dane axe

Dane axes (plural)
Dane ax (alternative)

(heraldry) Representation of the weapon, used as a heraldic charge.


chevronelle

(heraldry, rare) Alternative form of chevronel.


fimbriation

fimbriation (countable and uncountable, plural fimbriations)

(uncountable, heraldry, flags) The use of a thin stripe of a contrasting tincture (colour) around a charge, ordinary or stripe in order to make it stand out from the background.

(countable, heraldry, flags) Such a stripe.


crusily

(heraldry) Semé (strewn) with cross crosslets.


semé-de-lis

semy-de-lis (alternative)
semy-de-lys (alternative)
semé-de-lys (alternative)

(heraldry) Semé (strewn) with fleurs-de-lis.


platé

(heraldry) Alternative form of platy (“semé (strewn) with plates”).


annulletty

(heraldry, uncommon) Semé (strewn) with annulets.


tortelly

Crest[:] On a grassy mount a lion rampant Or tortelly supporting by the forepaws a torch Gules banded and chained Or enflamed proper.

1972, arms awarded by the College of Arms to Iain Ball (quoted e.g. by The Heraldry Society, "Members' Roll of Arms" / archived)

Argent, tortelly gules. […]

2020 November 13, arsaraldica (Instagram account), "Variations of the field (semy)

[…] within a bordure Or tortelly of nine.

, Heraldicon - Arms of the Empire of Jaluha Escutcheon Only (archived)

(heraldry) Semé (strewn) with torteaus (red roundels).


tergiant

Tortoise [:] this animal is usually borne displayed tergiant in fesse, which position is sometimes described as passant. The term gradient seems to be used to mean the same, and tergiant seems to be implied though not expressed.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 578:

For quotations using this term, see Citations:tergiant.

(heraldry) Showing its back, having its back turned to the viewer.


vulned

a pelican or, vulned gu.

1842, John Burke, Bernard Burke, A General Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, page 74:

Or a pelican in piety ppr. REIDHEUGH, Culte-bragan. Per chev. vert and erm. in chief a pelican or vulned ppr. JOYNER. [...] Quarterly per fess indented sa. and or in the first quarter a pelican of the second vulning itself ppr.

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, page 306:

Gu. a pelican feeding her young arg. vulned ppr. (4th quarter).

1893, James Balfour Paul, An Ordinary of Arms Contained in the Public Register of All Arms and Bearings in Scotland, page 190:

(heraldry, especially of a pelican) Wounded and bleeding, especially from the breast.


aversant

[...] bore, sable three sinister gauntlets aversant [...]

1902, Joseph Foster, Some Feudal Coats of Arms and Others, page 204:

Gules, a fess azure between 4 hands (mains) sinister aversant or.

1979, W. E. Hampton, Memorials of the Wars of the Roses: A Biographical Guide:

(heraldry) Turned to show the back: said of a hand (or gauntlet).


Leo Belgicus

(heraldry) A map of the Low Countries drawn in the shape of a lion and sometimes used as a heraldic device.


counterembowed

(heraldry) Bent, curved or arched in two directions, both to the left and to the right, or both upwards and downwards.


pellety

en-adj

pellety (comparative more pellety, superlative most pellety)

more pellety (comparative)
most pellety (superlative)
pelletty (alternative)

: -gules, a hind trippant or between three pheons or, within a bordure engrailed argent pellety. The printed version of Glover , which is frequently incorrect and is, incidentally, responsible for the use of many false[…]

1933, James Thomas Herbert Baily, The Connoisseur:

A dragon's head erased Or pellety eared and langued Gules.

1998, Joan Corder, John Blatchly, A Dictionary of Suffolk Crests: Heraldic Crests of Suffolk Families, Boydell & Brewer, →ISBN, page 319:

(heraldry, not comparable) Semé (strewn) with pellets (roundels sable).


hamade

From French, derived from the town of La Hamaide (in Belgium).

I said I thought that a hamade consists of three trunked bars, even though the Bigot Roll of 1254 blazons d'Abrichecourt's arms as having 'three hamades.' The writers in the Antiquaries' Journal, however, in addition to the Bigot Roll,[…]

1952, The Coat of Arms: An Heraldic Quarterly Magazine:

It consists of a bar couped at each end, but was originally always borne in threes. There is a dispute as to whether a hamade is properly three couped bars and therefore cannot be borne singly. The adjective humetty (q.v.) is[…]

1985, John Philip Brooke-Little, An Heraldic Alphabet, Robson Books Limited:

(heraldry) A bar that does not touch the edges of the shield, especially if borne as part of a set of three (which may be of equal length, or have the top bar longer than the bottom one; and may have straight edges, or slanted edges with the base shorter than the top).


vambraced

Sir George Carlyon Hughes Armstrong, first Baronet, [...] He bears for Arms : Gules, three dexter arms vambraced argent, hands closed proper ; on a canton of the second three pallets azure; […] Charles Randal Armstrong-MacDonell, Esquire, [...] 2 and 3 gules, three dexter arms vambraced and embowed proper, the hands clenched also proper, […]

1899, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Directory of Some Gentlemen of Coat-armour, Showing which Arms in Use at the Moment are Borne by Legal Authority, page 25:

(especially heraldry) Wearing a vambrace.


invecked

The crooked Lines are these following : The first two Lines, Plate II. named ingraled and invecked, when represented together, are somewhat known, the one from the other, being opposite to one another, both being made (as it were) of Semicircles; the ingraled with Points upward, and the invecked Line with Points downward. But this is not yet a sufficient Distinction: For, suppose the Space betwixt them, which they form, be a Fess, then it's only ingraled, and not invecked; for a Fess ingraled, must have the Points on both Sides turned twoards the Field, and the convex or gibbose Parts towards the Fess it self; and so of a Bend, Chiveron, and other proper Figures in Herauldry: And if these be invecked, then the convex Parts of the Line are towards the Field; [...] within a Bordure invecked. These two Lines, ingraled and invecked, are more hard to be distinguished, when the field is divided into two equal Parts of different Tinctures, [...] Here we know not whether the Line be ingraled or invecked, except we observe this Rule, That the Form of the Line must be applied to the Colour first named. The French, for ingraled, say engrele; and for invecked, canele:

1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 24:

Contrary invecked. Invecked on both sides as a chevron, &c. when the upper and under parts are both invecked.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry: Dictionary of Heraldry, page 10:

Greek cross in panel, centre "invecked." Inscription illegible

1899, Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Journal, page 117:


d'or

1617, William Camden, Worshipful Society of Apothecaries - description of coat of arms
On a shield azure Apollo, the inventor of phisique, proper, with his head radiant, holdinge in his left hand a bowe, and his right hande an arrow d'or […]

‘I forget your coat of arms.’
‘A human foot d’or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a serpent rampant whose fangs are imbedded in the heel.’

1846, Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado:

(heraldry, postpositive) Of gold; golden.


pommee

pomey (alternative)
pommé (alternative)
pommy (alternative)

From French pommé (“grown round, or like an apple”), past participle of pommer (“to pome”).

der

(heraldry, of a cross) Having the ends terminating in rounded protuberances or single balls; having round shapes on the extremities.


lampassé

[…] Quarterly, 1, or, upon a rock proper an eagle in profille, proper, lampassé, gules; in his right claw a bunch of six arrows [...] Between wings, alternately or and azure, a stag's head proper, with antlers of yen, lampassé gules. Lambrequins : Azure and or.

1903, Isidore Singer, Cyrus Adler, The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day, pages 129–131:

... the said James Smith haue thought fitt to declare and Assigne vnto him such armes as are herevnder mencõned (Viz) Azure a lyon Rampant or Armed and Lampasse Gules on a Cheiff Argent a Mullett of the third between two Torteuxes and[…]

1908, William Harry Rylands, The Four Visitations of Berkshire Made and Taken by Thomas Benolte, Clarenceux, Anno 1532; by William Harvey, Clarenceux, Anno 1566; by Henry Chitting, Chester Herald, and John Philipott, Rouge Dragon, for William Camden, Clarenceux, Anno 1623; and by Elias Ashmole, Windsor Herald, for Sir Edward Bysshe, Clarenceux, Anno 1665-66, page 212:

... a lion sable, armed and lampassé gules; ...

1911, Monnett Family Genealogy: An Emphasis of a Noble Huguenot Heritage, Somewhat of the First Immigrants Isaac1 and Pierre1 Monnet, page 170:


canting arms

(heraldry) A heraldic bearing in the form of a visual pun.


mediary

Charles king of France by an angel a shield of blue with three fleur-de-lis of gold together with other armour: and on both these occasions the foundation and field of the arms was azure, and this was superior to the gold. Therefore it is clear that this colour is the chief of all mediary and submediary colours.

1943, Evan John Jones, Medieval Heraldry: Some Fourteenth Century Heraldic Works, page 19:

The colours primary in themselves are the colours white and black; the colours truly mediary are blue, gold, and red; the sub-mediary colours are green and any Similar if there are any.

2011, Carole P. Biggam, Carole A. Hough, Christian J. Kay, New Directions in Colour Studies, →ISBN, page 200:

In answering this dilemma, Bado assesses the colours of fourteenth-century heraldry according to their status as primary, mediary or sub-mediary; their relative honour determined by the amount of elemental mixing gone into their creation. Thus Bado's opines that white is the highest colour in terms of honour, closely followed by black -- as opposed to Bartolo's contention that black was the lowest colour. (Red and blue are superior to green (as sub-mediary) in all fourteenth-century accounts of armorial colour I have seen)

2014, K.P. Clarke, Sarah Baccianti, On Light, →ISBN, page 41:

(heraldry, of color) Having a primary hue (red, blue, or gold), as opposed to one that can be created by mixing colors with primary hues.


flaunched

(heraldry) Alternative form of flanched.


undy

The Atchievement of the Lord MADERTT, is Or, three Barrs undy Gules, and on a Canton Argent, a Lion's Head erased within a double Tressure,[…]

1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 67:

191. John louel . Barry undy of six or and gules . No trace of a label. (Munsire Ioh'n Iouel, lescu undee dor & de gules a un label de azur.)

Argent, fretty sable. Gules, three bars undy argent, each charged with three martlets sable, on a chief argent three pellets. Crest: A camel's head and neck erased or, charged with three bends undy gules.

1899, Thomas Benolt, The Visitations of the County of Surrey Made and Taken in the Years 1530, page 231:


thatch-rake

thatch-rakes (plural)
thatch rake (alternative)

A. __Puckering, impaling, S. three thatch-rakes

1796, Daniel Lysons, The Environs of London: Counties of Herts, Essex & Kent, page 331:

See Plate XLVI. fig. 10, viz. three thatch-rakes, barwise.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry:

The thatch-rake or thatcher's rake is drawn as in the margin; but it is liable to be confused with the wool-comb and thatch-hook.

1894, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 488:

The pitchfork, the hay-fork, and the dung-fork, the tillage-rake and the thatch-rake, all occur, but there is little or no difference discernible between one and another, the forks are forks and the rakes rakes.

1971, Julian Franklyn, Shield and Crest: An Account of the Art and Science of Heraldry:

(heraldry) A representation of such a rake, used as a charge on the field or as a bordure device consisting of a straight line from which periodically project short perpendicular lines with slightly curved tips.


nageant

(heraldry) Synonym of naiant (“swimming”).


per pale

per pale gules and argent; tierced per pale; an escutcheon tierced per pale and per chevron

Alexander Wemyss of Lathocar, however, in 1511 bears, per pale, dexter a lion rampant for Wemyss, and sinister a saltire. The saltire is probably his wife's arms.

1914, John Horne Stevenson, Heraldry in Scotland, page 161:

(heraldry) (Partitioned) vertically; (especially) partitioned vertically into two halves (formally party per pale).

partit

heraldry: partitioned vertically: party per pale


crux ordinaria

Unadapted borrowing from Latin; possibly from Medieval Latin rather than Classical Latin (see crux simplex).

(heraldry) A certain style of cross; an instance thereof.


inverted pall

The Chinese running-hand form of the number six is 1, and this scarcely bears comparison with the mark in question, which looks almost exactly like an inverted pall or Y, each of whose three branches is formed of four circlets or dots, making twelve altogether.

It may be embroidered or edged with lace and a cross worked on its centre to distinguish it from the Mass corporal; or an inverted pall of the right size might conveniently be used if preferred.

1956, Edward Cyril Russell Lamburn, Ritual Notes:

When the two arms of the "Y" are on the hoist it may be called a simple pall, with the two arms on the fly a reversed pall, with the two arms on the top edge an upright pall and with the two arms on the bottom edge of the flag an inverted pall.

2008, A. P. Burgers, The South African flag book:


trimount

The allegorical figures standing on trimounts appear like guardians, flanking an archway formed by two fruit trees which frame the composite coat of arms.

1987, Veronika Birke, Walter L. Strauss, The Illustrated Bartsch, →ISBN, page 131:

On the shield of king Saint Stephen, the silver patriarchal cross on a trimount symbolizes royal power, the jupon worn over his armour is decorated by the family coat-of-arms of the Árpád dynasty.

1993, Ars Decorativa - Issues 13-15, page 21:

The Spengler Arms According to Siebmacher 's Wappenbuch and Riestap's Armoral General, the ancient (Nuremberg Spengler arms), were: Gules, a beaker argent on a trimount or: in other words, "a red shield emblazoned with a silver beaker resting on three golden hills.

2004, Donald Campbell Spangler, Spangler:

(heraldry) A stylized depiction of three hills or mountains.


verré

the arms of the said Robert, and the rest of the la Wardes, being verré, argent, and black, stand very old in Burton church.

1751, letter published in The Gentleman's Magazine (1751), page 407


varriated

Urdée, in point, or contrary urdée, termed also varriated, point in point. See Plate XLIX. No. 2, fig. 32, viz. barry of six, contrary urdée; by some blazoned, barry of six, champion—barry of six, per pale, varriated, point in point—

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica: Or, Complete Dictionary of Heraldry:

Variated—[See VARRIATED.] […]Varriated—(var'-ri-ated) A bearing cut in the form of vair; as, a bend varriated on the outsides.

1908, Arthur Francis Pimbley, Pimbley's Dictionary of Heraldry: Together with an Illustrated Supplement, page 66:

(heraldry) Cut in the form of vair; battlemented with solid projections and crenelles, both pointed, but in the latter case reversed.


jelloped

jellopped (alternative)
jowloped (alternative)
jowlopped (alternative)
jolloped (alternative)

Sable a cockatrice displayed argent, crested, membred, and jelloped, gules, name, Buggine.

1827, Hugh Clark, A Short and Easy Introduction to Heraldry, page 128:

-[...] on a chief sable, a dexter hand between two cocks argent, armed , wattled, and jelloped gules.

1895, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Armorial Families: A Complete Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage, and a Directory of Some Gentlemen of Coat-armour, and Being the First Attempt to Show which Arms in Use at the Moment are Borne by Legal Authority, page 462:

Azure, a cock argent, armed, crested, and jelloped gules.

1909, Eugene Zieber, Heraldry in America, page 280:

(heraldry) Having pendant wattles, often of a specified tincture.


urdé

Possibly from a misreading of French [croix] vidée (“reduced [cross]”), in croix aiguisée et vidée, a cross pointed and reduced or voided.
Alternatively, from Anglo-Norman urdee, ordé (“pointed”), ultimately from Frankish *ord (“point”), from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz (“point”). More at English ord.

A cross urdé seems to be the same with what we otherwise call chleche, or chlechée. See CHLECHE.

1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica or a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences …:

The sacred monogram is engraved on the bowl, the top of the letter I forming a cross urdé.

1891, Surrey Archaeological Society, Surrey Archaeological Collections: Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County, page 344:

Badge : A Cross-urdé resting on wreath of laurels and oak banded gold.

The decoration consists of a cross urdé enamelled white with gold edges, resting on a wreath of laurel and oak enamelled green . In the centre, edged with gold, is a circular plaque enamelled crimson bearing the cypher […]

1919, Henry Taprell Dorling, Ribbons and Medals: Part 1-2, page 37:

In heraldry, as many as 285 varieties of cross have been recognized, but the twelve in ordinary use, and from which the others are derived, are: (1) The ordinary cross; (2) the cross humetté, or couped; (3) the cross urdé[…]

1923, Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, A Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, page 301:

(heraldry) Pointed, as a cross, or having a point projected, as a bend; varriated.


tirret

Sinister, an unicorn, argent; armed, unguled, mained, tufted, ducally collared, or; on the shoulder, a tirret, or. MOTTO.

1813, Barak Longmate (the Younger), The Pocket Peerage of England, Scotland and Ireland; ..., page 244:

A bendlet between two tirrets, over all a lion, rampant. […] On the Shield of dripstone^([sic]) of Door, a rose within a wreath; the tirrets are profusely used on the wooden ceiling and in the moulding, both external and internal. The wreath is also met with several times.

1885, The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, page 209:

[…] tufted, ducally gorged, with chain reflexed over the back, & charged on the shoulder with a tirret or.

1886, James E. Doyle, The Official Baronage of England: Showing the Succession, Dignities, and Offices of Every Peer from 1066 to 1885, with Sixteen Hundred Illustrations, page 190:

(heraldry) A manacle, shackle, or swivel.


enguiché

From French enguiché, from en- + guiche (“strap for carrying a horn, a shield, etc”).

(heraldry, of trumpets, horns, etc) Having either a strap or a mouthpiece (or the interior of the mouth) which is of a specified tincture.


rustred

[image of (a) papelonné and (b) masculy; caption:] Two shields (a) representing rustred armour, and (b) mascled armour, anno 1100.

1856, Thomas Stewart Traill, Encyclopædia Britannica, Or, Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and General Literature, page 323:

(By its interwoven mascles his hanberk^([sic]) is conspicuously marked.) This was called "rustred armour," as contrasted with "ringed armour," one row of flat rings, about double the usual size, being laid over the other so that two in the upper partially covered one below.

1896, Arthur Perceval Purey- Cust, The Heraldry of York Minster: A Key to the History of Its Builders and Benefactors ; as Shewn in the Stained-glass Windows, and in the Carved Work in Stone, page 110:

[...] blazons argent, pale gules, charged with three fusels in the field pointed downwards and a tortueau azure rustred [translating forata] or and accosted by two similar torteau, bordure argent and gules.

2011 November 10, Un blasonario secentesco della piccola e media aristocrazia romana: Seventeenth century blazonry of the lesser roman aristocracy, Gangemi Editore spa, →ISBN, page 52:

(historical and heraldry) Having rustres.


dancette

Apparently from a scribal error for French or Middle French denché, from Old French denché, dansié, from Latin dens (“tooth”).

For quotations using this term, see Citations:dancette.

(heraldry) A zigzag or indented line or figure.


trangle

Bendy of fix Gules and Argent; on a Chief of the last, a Rose of the first, supported by a Trangle (the Diminutive of a Barr. A Fillet , with the English, for the Diminutive of a Chief, of which before) Or, charged with a[…]

1722, Alexander Nisbet, A System of Heraldry Speculative and Practical, page 73:

The quartered arms of the See were usually arranged in an oval escucheon I. Gules, […] an eagle sable, crowned with an antique crown and supported by a trangle held in its claws, is brochant over the stem of the tree.

1894, John Woodward, A Treatise on Ecclesiastical Heraldry, page 298:

(heraldry, rare) One of the (rarely used) diminutives of the fess (bar) or chief, a fillet or closet.


Groom of the Stool

en-proper noun

Groom of the Stool (plural Grooms of the Stool)

Grooms of the Stool (plural)
groom of the stool (alternative)

/ˈɡɹuːm əv ðə ˈstuːl/

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Groom of the Stool.wav

From groom (“officer of the English royal household”) + of + the + (close-)stool (“a chamber pot enclosed in a stool or box”).

The leſſer Corporations were [...] his Majeſties gratuities to the Lord of, &c. Marqueſs, &c. Q[ueen] Mother, Lady Nurſe, Groom of the ſtool, that is, the Cloſe ſtool, whether King or Queen (high and advantageous honours) and this diſcended to outlandiſh, as in Land commodities; yea, to pins and brooms; and it was ſaid, to Rags for paper, and Marrow-bones for Kitchin-ſtuff, or greaſe; [...]

1651, Charl[e]s George Cock, English-Law; or, a Summary Survey of the Household of God on Earth; […], London: Printed by Robert White for T. G. and Francis Tyton, […], →OCLC, page 52:

The King hath thirteen Gentlemen of the Bed-Chamber, who conſiſt uſually of the Prime Nobility of England, whereof the firſt is call'd Groom of the Stool [...] The meaning is a Groom or Servant of the Robe or Veſtment. He hath the Office and Honour to put on his Majeſties Shirt every morning, and to order the things of the Bed-Chamber[.]

1675, Paul Festeau, “Dialogues”, in Nouvelle Grammaire Angloise, Enrichie de Dialogues Curieux Touchant l’Estat & la Cour d’Angleterre. […] [New English Grammar, Enriched with Curious Dialogues Touching the State & the Court of England. […]], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, London: Chez George Wells, […], →OCLC, pages 193–194:

[T]he Statute enjoyns the Clergy-man to be reſident in and upon his Living, that is, his Parſonage or Vicarage-Houſe, if he have any, and not at any other Houſe in the Pariſh; [...] But the Chaplains of the Chancellor of the Dutchy, Augmentations, Firſt-fruits, Maſter of the Wards, Surveyor General, Treaſurer of the Chamber and Augmentations, and Groom of the Stool, are to be Reſident twice in a year at leaſt, Eight days at each time: [...]

1695, Simon Degge, chapter VII, in The Parson’s Counsellor, with the Law of Tythes or Tything: In Two Books. […], 5th corrected and enlarged edition, London: Printed by the assigns of Richard and Edward Atkyns, Esquires, for Richard Sare […], and Jos[eph] Hindmarsh […], →OCLC, pages 80–81:

MONTMORENCY (Anne de) firſt baron, peer, mareſchal, high-ſteward, conſtable of France; knight of St. Michael, and of the garter, groom of the ſtool, and governor of Languedoc, &c. was ſecond ſon to William lord of Montmorency.

1743, “MONTMORENCY (Anne de)”, in Historical, Genealogical, and Classical Dictionary. […] In Two Volumes, volume II, London: Printed for A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, column 2:

The Queen then rises and goes to the faldstool, at which she is to be anointed and crowned, placed between King Edward's chair and the steps of the altar, where the Groom of the Stool to her Majesty (with the two Ladies of her Bedchamber) take off her rich circlet or coronet; when the Queen kneels down, and the Archbishop pours the holy oil on the crown of her head, in the form of a cross, using these words, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, let the anointing of this oil increase thine honour," &c.

1831 September 1, “A Particular and Historical Account of the Ceremonies usually Observed at the Coronation of the Kings and Queens of Great Britain”, in The World of Fashion, and Continental Feuilletons. […], volume VIII, number 89, London: Printed by Mr. Bell, […], →OCLC, page 211, column 1:

It is the king's pleasure that Mr Norris shall be in the room of Sir William Compton, not only giving his attendance as groom of the stool but also in his bedchamber and other privy places as shall stand with his pleasure. And the king's express command is that none other of the said six gentlemen [of the privy chamber] presume to enter or follow his Grace into the said bedchamber, or any other secret place, unless he shall be called and admitted thereunto by his said grace.

1995, Eric Ives, “Henry VIII: The Political Perspective”, in Diarmaid MacCulloch, editor, The Reign of Henry VIII: Politics, Policy and Piety (Problems in Focus), Basingstoke, Hampshire, London: Macmillan Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 20:

As David Starkey has delineated in great detail, one of Henry [VIII]'s major administrative achievements was the centralization of court administration in a collection of younger gentry in bodily service to the King. Grooms of the Chamber, Grooms of the Stool, Esquires of the Body – these were the titles granted men who ministered to Henry's private functions, and as Starkey argues, it is this new sense of intimacy that recalibrates the English body politic into a politics of the King's body.

1997, Seth Lerer, “Pretexts: Chaucer’s Pandarus and the Origins of Courtly Discourse”, in Courtly Letters in the Age of Henry VIII: Literary Culture and the Arts of Deceit, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 22:

The title of Groom of the Stool derived from that gentleman's privilege of attending his sovereign whenever he used the close stool; his duties were to provide him with a flannel "to wipe his nether end" and to summon a Yeoman of the Chamber to empty and clean the pot. Sir Thomas Heneage, Groom of the Stool from 1536 to 1546, was witness to the King's chronic constipation and his efforts to relieve it, [...]

2001, Alison Weir, Henry VIII: The King and His Court, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: Ballantine Books, 2008, →ISBN, page 81:

As cloacal factotum, the Groom of the Stool presides over the offices of royal excretion; he maintains the royal close-stool and examines its products for signs of health or distemperature; he serves, in this sense, both as a royal confidant and an intermediary between the royal self in its private and public capacities. The Groom's office, in short, involves an "exquisite combination of intimacy, degradation, and privilege" (Paster 1993: 32); [...]

2003, Bruce Boehrer, “The Privy and Its Double: Scatology and Satire in Shakespeare’s Theatre”, in Richard Dutton, Jean E. Howard, editors, A Companion to Shakespeare’s Works, volume IV (The Poems, Problem Comedies, Late Plays), Malden, Mass., Oxford, Oxfordshire: Blackwell Publishing, →ISBN, page 78:

The exaltation of a monarch was such that few were fit to dine with one. Meanwhile, as many as eight "grooms of the stool" waited on kings when at privy. A king sat alone at the table and in company at the "throne."

2014, Leonard Sweet, “Setting the Table at Home”, in From Tablet to Table: Where Community is Found and Identity is Formed, Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers, →ISBN, part II (Life’s Three Tables), page 81:

(British, monarchy, historical) Originally an official responsible for helping the English monarch use the toilet; later a senior official who was allowed access to the monarch's privy chamber and served as a personal secretary.


lozengewise

en-adv

lozengewise (comparative more lozengewise, superlative most lozengewise)

more lozengewise (comparative)
most lozengewise (superlative)

(heraldry) Placed like a lozenge (a diamond).


lozengewise

[…] a lozengewise arrangement, […]

1850, John Henry Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Grecian, Roman, Italian, and Gothic Architecture, page 220:

[…] a lozengewise square, six elongated hexagons and four square panels in the space between the two.

1997, Michele George, The Roman Domestic Architecture of Northern Italy, British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited, →ISBN:

(heraldry) Oriented like a lozenge (a diamond).


lozengeways

lozengeways (comparative more lozengeways, superlative most lozengeways)

more lozengeways (comparative)
most lozengeways (superlative)


dextrochere

(heraldry) A right arm, typically holding a sword.


cleché

clechée (alternative)
cléché (alternative)
cléchée (alternative)
clechy (alternative)

Argent, a cross clechée sable — Sir Thomas BANASTER, K.G., ob. 2° Ric. II. (as depicted upon his stall-plate at Windsor, elsewhere blazoned, Argent, a cross patty pointed sable).
Or, on a mount between two lesser ones vert a lamb sable, holding with the dexter forefoot a banner ermine charged with a cross clechée gules—GROSE, Surrey (1756).

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 162:

[…] and of a cross cleché voided and pometté as in the arms of Cawston (Fig. 162).

1904, Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, The Art of Heraldry: An Encyclopaedia of Armory, London: T.C.; & E.C. Jack, page 86:

Cross OF TOULOUSE (cross clechy, voided and botonny)

(10) — patee : cross clechy, i.e. with the ends of the arms pointed, […]

1994, L. A. J. R. Houwen, The Deidis of Armorie: A Heraldic Treatise and Bestiary, page 213:

(heraldry) Having ends which flare out (like a cross patté) before tapering back to a point (urdé).

[…] our miniatures of c. 1375 or after, namely, the Christ Enthroned of the Fitzwarin Psalter. The background 'prints' formed in the interspaces crosses clechy (i.e. of mascles). This point is interesting if it is considered in relation to the mascles[…]

1955, Ernest William Tristram, English Wall Painting of the Fourteenth Century, page 44:

Cross cléchée (voided Greek cross formed of four sans-serif L's by closing ends. Three roundels (2 + 1) end each arm. Lys in each angle. PIECE-DE-XXX (pellet, on Lyon coins; engraver's différent, on Metz) DENIERS- Individual punches for all elements; dentilated borders.

1976, Eric P. Newman, Studies on Money in Early America, page 54:

(heraldry) Charged with another bearing of the same figure and of the colour of the field so that only a narrow border of the first bearing remains visible; voided.


sepurture

Obscure. Early uses are in the phrase in sepurture, suggesting it might have originated as a noun ending in -ure; compare the heraldic use of overture, overt.

For quotations using this term, see Citations:sepurture.

(heraldry) Of a bird's wings: raised above the back and opened.


lymphad

(heraldry) A single-masted ship propelled by oars, usually indicating a Scottish title associated with islands.


muschetor

From Middle French mouscheture, from Latin musca (“a fly”).

For quotations using this term, see Citations:muschetor.

(heraldry) A black spot like an ermine spot, but without its three specks.


potenty

(heraldry) Having an outline or placement like that of a succession of crutch or T shapes like the fur potent (noun).


counterpotenty

From counterpotent + -y or counter- + potenty.

(heraldry) Having an outline or placement like that of the fur counterpotent.


amphiptere

amphipteres (plural)
amphithere (alternative)
amphitere (alternative)

Ultimately from Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí, “amphi-”) + πτερόν (pterón, “wing”).

af

<i class="Latn mention" lang="en">amphi-</i>

Azure, an amphiptere or, rising between two mountains argent, are the arms of Camoens, the Portuguese poet.

1969, John Vinycomb, Fictitious and Symbolic Creatures in Art, Library of Alexandria, →ISBN:

(heraldry, fantasy) A type of winged serpent, with two bat-like wings and typically with no other limbs.


demilion

demilions (plural)
demi-lion (alternative)

(heraldry) The upper or front half of a lion.


countercompony

From French contre-componé; equivalent to counter- + compony.

(heraldry) Consisting of a checkerboard of two rows of squares in alternating tinctures. (Contrast chequy.)


orled

The arms of the Valence family were orled with martlets

(heraldry) Furnished with an orle (or inner border), either a simple border, or a repeated closed repetition of a symbol.


sans nombre

Sixth, de la Plaunche, Argent, a lion rampant, Sable, crowned, Or, round him billets sans nombre, Sable.

1812, Arthur Collins, Collins's Peerage of England; Genealogical, Biographical, and Historical, page 376:

Charles VI. restored to the scutcheon of France the three lilies, first borne by Clovis; the race of Pepin having borne the azure field, semée des fleurs de lys sans nombre, which were also borne by the House of Capet down to 1389.

1877, University magazine, The Dublin university magazine, page 442:

[...] ancient inheritance of his father's family, which were azure, eight lioncels (or perhaps lioncels sans nombre) or.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 380:

Below the rose are the arms of Poitou, golden towers on red, and the old arms of France, azure with fleurs-de-lis sans nombre. Opposite to this on the south side is a small rose with the later shield of France, with only three[…]

1914, Arthur J. de Havilland Bushnell, Storied Windows: A Traveller's Introduction to the Study of Old Church Glass, from the Twelfth Century to the Renaissance, Especially in France, page 188:

The Northamptonshire Washingtons, or one branch of them, bore the following arms: "Paly (sans nombre) argent and gules with three mullets of the first on a chief azure." Another branch of the family bore : Argent with two bars[…]

1914, Robert Hudson George, A History of the Herefordshire Borderland, page 175:

Quarterly, bendy sans nombre or and gules, and likewise sinisterways of the second and first, on a pale sable between two Roman fasces in fess proper, a heart argent , charged with three bendlets purpure, and in chief an annulet[…]

1921, The Ecclesiastical Review, page 463:

(heraldry) Repeated (as a charge like a billet or a division like paly) many times, covering the field with no set number (of the thing).


champaine

French champagne (“base of a coat of arms”).

uder

champain (alternative)
champion (alternative)
champagne (alternative)

Purpure, a bend champaine argent—ARCHBY.
Argent, a pale champaine vert—BOWMAN.
Bendy of six champaine purple and argent—BOWBRIDGE.
Gyronny of four champaine or, enarched argent and gules—BRAUNECK.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 99:

(heraldry) Curved (concave), enarched, or sometimes varriated; especially in the phrase point champaine, an abatement consisting of a curved (or sometimes horizontal) stain the bottom of the shield.


champaine

3. Two rows of Vair, on a champagne gules an open crown or (both 2 and 3 for CRONBERG).

1892, John Woodward, George Burnett, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 489:

(heraldry) Alternative form of champagne (“(ordinary occupying) the base of the shield”).


satyral

From Old French satirel (“little satyr”); see satyr for more.

Two satyrals supported the arms of the lords Stawell.

1847, Henry Gough, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table, Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress, page 339:

Behind the satyral, the foliage rustled, and to Jingo's mounting astonishment, a huge brown susquat rushed into the encampment and stood beside the satyral, growling and baring his teeth at the salax king. It was Hooks, and the ghastly[…]

2011 10, Robert Louis Smith, Antiquitas Lost: The Last of the Shamalans, Medlock Publishing LLC, →ISBN:

(heraldry and fantasy) A creature with a human head and the limbs of different animals.


unheraldic

en-adj

unheraldic (comparative more unheraldic, superlative most unheraldic)

more unheraldic (comparative)
most unheraldic (superlative)

The crest of Walpole, as it is now borne by the family […] "A Saracen's head ducally crowned Or, with a long ca on gules, thereon a Catherine-wheel Or; […]." […] However, it was passed by the College of Arms, and ever since the Walpoles have been saddled with this most inartistic and unheraldic crest.

1900, The Genealogical Magazine, page 8:

(heraldry) Not heraldic; not adhering to the norms of heraldry.


ragged staff

en-noun

ragged staff (plural ragged staffs or ragged staves)

ragged staffs (plural)
ragged staves (plural)

(heraldry) A knotted stick with short stumps of branches on each side.


dragonné

(heraldry) Like a dragon in the hinder part, and a lion or other creature in the fore part.


gamb

From Middle French gambe (variant of jambe) from Late Latin gamba (hoof, leg, shank). Doublet of jamb, gamba, and gam.

Vachell, Eng. a bull's gamb in pale, couped, argent. […] Vaughan of Littleton, Middlesex, a lion's gamb, or, holding a human heart, gules.

1817, Alexander Deuchar, British Crests: containing the crests and mottos of the families of Great Britain and Ireland; together with those of the principal cities; and a glossary of heraldic terms ... Embellished with nearly fourteen hundred crests, engraved by Robert Kirkwood, from original drawings, by G. Sanders, and J. Grant, page 284:

(heraldry) The leg or shank, typically of an animal, especially of a lion, on a coat of arms, crest, etc.


CoA

CoA (countable and uncountable, plural CoAs)

(heraldry slang, informal) Initialism of coat of arms.


humetté

(heraldry) Cut short in the form of a humet, not reaching the ends of the shield (as a chevron, cross, etc).


square-pierced

For quotations using this term, see Citations:square-pierced.

(heraldry) Of a charge: perforated with a square opening so as to show the field.


ayrant

Related to Middle English aire, ayre, eyre (“hawk's nest”), -ant.

inh

Bygbery, [Devon,] az. an eagle, ayrant, or, armed gu.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica, Or Complete Dictionary of Heraldry:

Az. an eagle ayrant or armed gu. BYGBERY, CO. Devon. […] Gu. an eagle ayrant or. BARDOLPH, Norfolk.

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland, pages 299–300:

Gules, an eagle ayrant or—BARDOLPH, Norfolk. / Azure, an eagle eyrant or, armed gules—BYGBERY, Devon. / Per pale or and argent, an eagle displayed perched on a ragged staff sable—PYNELL.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 215:


shackle bolt

(heraldry) A bearing representing a fetlock for hobbling a horse.


veruled

a hunting-horn, vert, veruled or

27. a bugle-horn, sa., veruled or, stringed gu. pl. 88, n. 19.

1851, The Book of Family Crests; Comprising Nearly Every Family Bearing, Properly Blazoned and Explained, Accompanied by Upwards of Four Thousand Engravings ...: Dictionary, page 382:

BURTON, Yorks., an arm, couped and erect, vested, per pale, ar. and gu., cuffed, of the first, in hand, ppr., a walking staff, of the second, headed, rimmed, and veruled, or. Pl. 18, cr. 1.

1860, James Fairbairn, Fairbairn's Crests of the families of Great Britain and Ireland. Revised by L. Butters, ed.by J. Maclaren, page 88:

Hunter. Scotland, a hunting-horn vert, veruled or, and stringed gu.

1892, James Fairbairn, Fairbairn's Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, page 232:

[…] crowned or, in sinister chief an anchor and cannon saltirewise argent (badge of the IX Corps, Civil War); on a canton of the last a tomahawk and a powder horn crosswise azure, stringed and veruled of the second.

(heraldry) Alternative form of viroled (“ringed in a different tincture”).


rizom

Rizoms of Oats, [...]
Rizomes, the spearsed ears of Oats in the Straw, a Rizome head, a chaffy sparsed head

1688, Randle Holme, The academy of armory, book 2, chapter VI:

… the Corns in the Husk. / Some, in stead of an Ear, have a rizom (or plume) conteining the Corns by bunches, as, Oats, …

1659, Johann Amos Comenius, Joh. Amos Commenii Orbis sensualium pictus, […], XVII, Corn

The corn, or fruit, at the top of an oat-stalk is not generally termed the ear, but the rizom; and in old heraldry it is sometimes blazoned an oat-stalk, bladed and rizomed.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopædia Heraldica: Or, Complete Dictionary of Heraldry:

(also heraldry) A plume or ear, as of oats or corn.


créquier

From French créquier, from Old French crekere, derived from Old French creque, creke, borrowed from Middle Dutch crieke, related to Middle High German kreke (whence German Krieche (“damson plum”)).

83, the arms of the Créquy family are the créquier gules on a field or; see the picture.

Gules, a créquier argent, are the arms of LE JOSNE (now LE JEUNE) Marquis DE CONTOY. Argent , a nut tree eradicated vert, is borne by NOZIER, and NOGARET in France, and by FACCHINETTI in Italy.

1896, John Woodward, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 335:

(heraldry) A highly stylized tree of seven (less commonly, five) symmetrical branches, typically also depicted fruited, typically identified in English and French heraldic works as a wild cherry or wild plum.


at speed

(heraldry) Courant, in full chase: running, at full stride with its legs in the air.


in chief

Erm. a fesse betw. two demi lions in chief and three mascles in base gu.

1844, John Burke, Bernard Burke, Encyclopædia of Heraldry, Or General Armory of England, Scotland and Ireland, page 375:

Arg. a saltire betw. a cross-gate in chief and in base and a crescent in each flank gu. / HEGENS, Scotland. Arg. a saltire engr. betw. a mullet in chief two crescents in flanks and a cross crosslet fitchy in base gu.

1874, John Woody Papworth, An Alphabetical Dictionary of Coats of Arms Belonging to Families in Great Britain and Ireland: Forming an Extensive Ordinary of British Armorials : Upon an Entirely New Plan ..., page 1070:

(heraldry) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, chief. In the chief of the escutcheon.


Brunswick star

From the German Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

(heraldry) An emblem formed by an eight-pointed or sixteen-pointed star composed of many narrow rays.


honor point

honor points (plural)
honour point (alternative)

(heraldry) The point just above the fess point.


Árpád stripe

The origin of the stripes is associated with the House of Árpád, the founding dynasty of Hungary.

(heraldry, chiefly in the plural) Any of the stripes (barry of eight gules and argent) forming a particular heraldic and vexillologic configuration used since the early 13th century mainly in Hungarian heraldry.


bend dexter

(heraldry) A diagonal band on a coat of arms going (from the viewer's perspective) from top left to the bottom right.


furiosant

RANGANT, a term used, in old heraldry, for the bull, bugle, or buffalo, when borne furiosant, or in a rage, or madness.

1828, William Berry, Encyclopaedia Heraldica: Or, Complete Dictionary of Heraldry:

An old term for the bull etc., enraged, or furiosant.

2009 06, Charles Norton Elvin, A Dictionary of Heraldry, Genealogical Publishing Com, →ISBN, page 107:

(heraldry, uncommon, of a bull, ox, etc) Passant with head lowered, as if preparing to charge.


pommetty

pometté (alternative)
pometty (alternative)
pommeté (alternative)
pommetée (alternative)
pommetté (alternative)
pommettée (alternative)

(heraldry, of a cross, saltire, etc) Having the ends terminating in rounded protuberances like pommels.


bordured

A chevron bordured between three shamrocks

a bordured coat

(heraldry) Having or exhibiting a bordure.


in pride

Over the fire-place on the right hand, there is a group of heathen celestials: - Jupiter and Juno, in a reclining posture, with their mythological insignia (the eagle holding the thunderbolts, and the peacock in his pride); […]

1841, Irvin Eller, The History of Belvoir Castle: From the Norman Conquest to the Nineteenth Century, page 301:

I remember, too, seeing the Peacock in pride above the arms of the late Sir Matthew Tierney, the physician, […]

Argent, three peacocks in pride proper.

1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 448:

A Psalter, B.L. MC. Arundel 157, of circa 1200, has a fairly good bird in its pride in the initial D of Psalm 98 […] (f.82v). This is not one of the regularly illustrated psalms, and the only possible symbolism, that the peacock represents Christ, seems far-fetched.

1982, William Brunsdon Yapp, Birds in Medieval Manuscripts, page 22:

Our Turkey Lectern is 20th-century, but the family arms, with the turkey crest, occur in 18th-century glass and in the carvings above 17th- and 18th- century tombs. I find it interesting that these two earlier birds show great resemblance to your 18th century picture of the North American wild turkey. Though depicted "in its pride”, the body has the elongated shape of the present-day pheasant. Can it be that at that time the domestic turkey was still similar to the North American wild turkey?

1983, Cynthia Mortimore, in a letter to (and published in) Country Life, volume 173, page 582

Above the shield and helmet is the Crest which is described as : "A peacock in pride ar." A translation of the Crest description is : "A silver peacock in her pride." Family mottos are believed to have originated as battle cries in medieval times ...

(1) A peacock in his pride arg. (for Pelham).

1993, James Fairbairn, Fairbairn's Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, Genealogical Publishing Com, →ISBN, page 438:

The careful and detailed rendering of the "eyes" of the peacock's tail in many of the bestiaries may be an artistic attempt to create a pictorial equivalent of the text. The peacock in Bodley 764 is shown in its pride (figure C, p. xxiv).

2013, Debra Hassig, The Mark of the Beast: The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature, Routledge, →ISBN, page 61:

(heraldry, chiefly of a peacock) With its tail feathers spread.


preyant

Lowe, [New Sarum, in Wiltshire] Gu. a wolf preyant ar. Crest, a wolf's head couped ar. collared or.

1780, Joseph Edmondson, A Complete Body of Heraldry:

Culcheth of Culcheth: argent, an eagle disclosed, preyant on a child in a mantle gules, wattled or. This is the crest of Stanley, well known in Lancashire as the bird and bantling.

1880, Thomas Spencer Baynes, The Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, page 700:

(heraldry) Preying; in the posture of preying (upon something).


enaluron

Uncertain; perhaps from French *en aileron (in which case see aileron).

For quotations using this term, see Citations:enaluron.

(heraldry, uncommon) Charged with birds.


enurny

From Anglo-Norman enorné, enourné, variant forms of aurné, aourné, from aurner (“to adorn, decorate, endow”); compare anorn, enorn from the same nasal variants.

He beareth Argent, a bordure quarterly, as followeth: The first Gules, enurny of three Lioncels passant guardant, Or. The second, Azure, verdoy, of as many Flowers de Lis, Or. The third as the fecond : The fourth as the first.

1638, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldrie, page 32:


jellop

jellops (plural)
jowlop (alternative)
jollop (alternative)

Initially in the form jollop, jowlop, from jowl, jole + lap (see dewlap for more about lap).

(heraldry) The wattle (“skin hanging down below the neck; dewlap”) of a cock or similar creature.


chevronelly

(heraldry) Marked with a chevronel or chevronels.


grand quarter

(heraldry) A quarter that is itself quartered.


gobonated

(heraldry) Gobony; compony; divided into a line of squares of alternating tincture.


fusilly

an inescutcheon fusilly in bend argent and azure


bretessé

brettessé (alternative)
bretessée (alternative)
bretessy (alternative)

(heraldry) Embattled (as a bend, fesse, etc), especially if embattled-counterembattled on both sides with the projections coming opposite each other.


armorial bearing

en-noun

armorial bearing (plural armorial bearings)

(heraldry) Heraldry that consists of a design or image depicted on a shield.


Jerusalem cross

Jerusalem cross (plural Jerusalem crosses)

(heraldry) a cross variant consisting of a large cross potent surrounded by four smaller Greek crosses, one in each quadrant.


countervairy

counter-vairy (alternative)
counter vairy (alternative)

Bufkin. Arms.—Or, a chevron between three close helmets azure. [...] A shield [blank] impaling: Quarterly: 1, Per fess azure [and argent], a pale countercharged between three bucks' heads, two and one, erased [or]; [...] 3, Ermine, a fess counter vairy or and gules; [...] Another shield [blank] impaling: [...] 6, Counter vairy argent and azure, a canton gules.

1924, Thomas Benolt, The Visitations of Kent ..., page 86:

In the border of a miniature, the arms of the first owner, apparently a member of the Van Varssenaere family of Bruges (1, sable three daggers proper in bend; 2, sable three sheaves of wheat or; 3, argent vairy countervairy gules; 4, azure six ears of wheat or, 3, 2, 1).

1961, Seymour de Ricci, William Jerome Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, page 1816:

[…] and finally that of Vaché: “Vairy and countervairy in three tiers of gold and purple, with a silver chief charged by two facing sable sphinxes, placed over the partition."

2014 April 24, Patrick Lepetit, The Esoteric Secrets of Surrealism: Origins, Magic, and Secret Societies, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

(heraldry, of a field or charge, rare) Divided into a countervair pattern of two or more tinctures.


plumetty

(heraldry, of a field or charge, uncommon) Divided into a pattern of two or more tinctures which is similar to vairy but resembles feathers.


palar

(heraldry) Pertaining to a pale, a vertical band or line.


counterly

3 He beareth Azure a Bordure counter-componed: Or, and Guiles; which is as much to say, as Compounded of these two Colours counterly placed. Note that Countercompony consisteth euermore of two tracts onely and no more.

1611, John Guillim, John Barkham, A Display of Heraldrie: Manifesting a More Easie Accesse to the Knowledge Thereof Then Hath Beene Hitherto Published by Any, Through the Benefit of Method, Whereinto it is Now Reduced by the Industry of Joh. Gwillim Pursuiuant of Armes, page 18:

N. 23. Gules, a cherub, having three pair of wings, whereof the uppermost and lowermost are counterly crossed, and the middlemost displayed or, name, Buocafoco.

1829, Hugh Clark, An Introduction to Heraldry ...: The Whole Forming a Complete Manual of Rank and Nobility, page 48:

(heraldry, rare) In a way that is counter to something else, for example in colour (being divided, as a field, bordure, etc, into different colours), or placement (facing different directions, or crossed).


counterquartered

(heraldry) Doubly divided into quarters, so that each quarter (or a specified quarter) is itself quartered.


billetty

billeté (alternative)
billety (alternative)

From Middle English bylytte, from Old French billeté.


botony

botoné (alternative)
botonée (alternative)
bottoné (alternative)
bottonée (alternative)
bottony (alternative)
botonné (alternative)
botonny (alternative)

From French boutonné; from boutonner (“to bud, button”).

(heraldry) Having a bud-like projection or a kind of trefoil at the end; (in particular, of a cross) having a trefoil of buds at the end of each arm.


counterermine

(heraldry) Alternative form of counter-ermine.


mi-parti

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-mi-parti.wav

Learned borrowing from French mi-parti (literally “divided down the middle”), from Middle French mi-parti, from Old French miparti, past participle of mipartir (“to split in half”), from mi (“middle”) + partir (“to split”); compare medial and party (“divided”). Though the term is mentioned beginning in the 17th century, actual use is apparently only recorded from the 19th century onwards.

lbor

They are all parted per pale, or (to vſe Scohier's word, mi-partie, that is, parted longwiſe in the midſt, or perpendicularly parted, but yet ſeuerally affected in the partings […]

[1610, Edmund Bolton, Edm: Bolton his Elements of Armories, London: George Eld, page 95:

The extreme uncertainty of engraving the horizontal line of division in shields makes it quite reasonable to suppose the division which we see in Panwitz to have been made to look mi-parti in error.

1871 April 15, D. P., “New German flag”, in Notes and Queries, volume 7, number 172, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →DOI, page 323:

Almost all the indoor servants were given three ells of coloured shortcloth, together with three ells of striped cloth for their suits, which must have been, therefore, mi-parti.

1980, Stella Mary Newton, “VIII: Livery and the Dress of the Poor”, in Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince: A Study of the Years 1340-1365, Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, published 1999, →ISBN, page 67:

(heraldry, clothing, chiefly historical) Vertically divided into distinctly-coloured or patterned halves; party per pale.


counternaiant

(heraldry, of fish) Depicted swimming in opposite horizontal directions.


crouchant

a lion crouchant argent

[…] standing over a crouchant elephant and mounted by a human figure holding the bridle passing through its mouth. The faces of the vimana are carved with the figures of the deities of the Hindu Pantheon.

1912, Mano Mohan Ganguly, Orissa and Her Remains --: Ancient and Medieval … Introduction by … J. G. Woodroffe.), page 412:

(chiefly heraldry, uncommon) Lying down with the head erect.


floretty

fleurettée (alternative)
fleuretty (alternative)
florettée (alternative)

(heraldry, of a cross) Decorated (finished at the ends) with fleurs-de-lis, which (unlike a cross flory) are attached in their entirety to the arms of the couped cross, rather than the arms developing into that shape.


inveckée

second, gu. a cross moline within a border inveckée, for CADDELL;

1842, John Burke, Bernard Burke, A General Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland:

[caption on an illustration of a chief double-enarched:] A Chief inveckée.

1911, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary ... prepared under the superintendence of William Dwight Whitney ... rev. & enl. under the superintendence of Benjamin E. Smith, page 3170:

(heraldry) Indented by semicircles, variously defined in old works as invected or (double-)enarched (with semicircles biting inwards and points pointing outward) or engrailed (with semicircles biting outwards and points pointing inward).