Dictionary of heraldic terms used in Steen Clemmensen’s ‘Evaluating armorials (II) – Variant coats of arms’

Steen Clemmensen’s blogpost contains some heraldic terms that might, for the uninitiated, look like a secret language. The purpose of these particular vocabulary and the fairly strict manner of describing a coats of arms (= blazoning), is that it should enable a reader or an artist to imagine and recreate a coat of arms in an exact manner. In order to make the article intelligible for the novices, we have provided a short dictionary of the heraldic terms and overview of heraldic basic rules as practised by Clemmensen.[1]

Colours

In heraldry, colours are divided into two groups: metals (yellow and white) and colours (the other colours). The basic colour rule is that metal should not touch metal and colour should not touch colour. The underlying idea is that the alternation of metal and colour provides a visual contrast and hence makes the coats of arms clearly visible and identifiable from a distance. The heraldic terms for the metals and colours are as follows:

Charges

For the visibility of the coats of arms, it is important that the charges are drawn as clearly as possible. The heraldic terms for the different charges are as follows:

Pale	Vertical band in the centre of the shield
Paly	Multiple vertical bends in an even number
Fess	Horizontal band in the centre of the shield
Barry	Multiple horizontal bends in an even number
Chief	Horizontal band on top of the shield
Bend	Diagonal band from above right (viewers left) to below left (viewer’s right)
Bendy	Multiple diagonal bends in an even number
Chevron	An inverted V-shaped charge
Chevronny	Multiple inverted V-shaped charge in an even number
Brisure / cadency	Systematic set of figures that serve to differentiate between otherwise identical coats of arms. The example shows the cadency of the Label of three points
(Party) Per	(Party) Per means that the field is parted in two parts. The word that follows indicates the way it is parted. The examples show per fess and per pale
Rampant	Climbing
Guardant	Looking at the observer
Passant	Walking. A Walking lion looking at the observer (guardant)  is   also called a leopard
Salient	Jumping
Statant	Standing
Issant	Coming out of an edge of the field or from another charge