A Heraldic Glossary - Chris Purvis Argent Silver Armed Claws, talons etc Azure Blue Barry Alternate horizontal stripes. Always an even number Bend A broad band from top left to bottom right of the shield Bordure Border round the edge of the shield Canton A small square, usually in the top left corner of the shield Chequey Divided into squares Chevron Inverted V Chief The top part of a shield, usually about one third. Cinquefoil A flower with five petals Counter Reversed Cross-crosslet A cross with a small bar on each arm Crowned With a crown Displayed With wings spread Engrailed *Crinkly edged Erased Torn off Ermine Black ermine tails on a white background Escallop A Scallop shell Fess A horizontal bar across the middle of the shield Fitchy Of a cross, the bottom arm pointed Flory Terminated with a fleur-de-lis Fret *Like a trellis Gamb Leg Garb A sheaf of wheat Gardant Facing out of the shield Gules Red Haurient Upright with the head at the top In point Coming to a point Jessant-de-lis Fleur-de-lis thrust through the mouth Luce Pike (the fish) Martlet A bird, like a martin, shown without legs Maunch Sleeve Mill-rind The iron centrepiece of a millstone Mullet A star with five points Of the field The colour(s) of the background of the shield Of the nth Of the nth colour, metal or fur mentioned Or Gold Orle *Round the edge Passant Walking along with right fore paw raised Pellet A black roundel Pheon *An arrowhead Pierced Showing the background colour in the centre Pile Triangular wedge shape from the top of the shield Rampant Upright with the left hind leg on the ground Roundel A disc Sable Black Salient Springing. Saltire *Like a St Andrew's cross Semy Scattered with Torteau A red roundel
Colour, metal or fur When one of these is used it refers to everything mentioned since the previous one. To avoid repeating one of these later in a blazon it sometime referred to as 'of the ...'.
Entries marked with * are not full definitions, but really need an illustration.
|
