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The word blazon is derived from French blason, ' shield '. It is found in English by the end of the 14th century. [1] Formerly, heraldic authorities believed that the word was related to the German verb blasen ' to blow (a horn) '. [2] [3] Present-day lexicographers reject this theory as conjectural and disproved. [1]
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design [1] on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its whole consists of a shield, supporters, a crest, and a motto.
The blazon used elsewhere had included the French motto of the arms, Dieu et mon droit, together with the Old French motto of the Order of the Garter, the highest Chivalric order of the Kingdom of England. The motto of the Order of the Garter, Honi soit qui mal y pense, appears on a representation of the garter surrounding the shield.
The heraldry of the shield was first seen among the aristocratic elite of counts, before spreading by imitation to squire lords and then to ordinary knights. [ Ha 3 ] By the end of the twelfth century and into the thirteenth, coats of arms were being adopted by all noblemen, right down to simple squires.
Illustration from a manuscript grant of arms by Philip II of Spain to Alonso de Mesa and Hernando de Mesa, signed 25 November 1566. Digitally restored. According to the usual description of the law of arms, coats of arms, armorial badges, flags and standards and other similar emblems of honour may only be borne by virtue of ancestral right, or of a grant made to the user under due authority.
A heraldic achievement consists of a shield of arms, the coat of arms, or simply coat, together with all of its accompanying elements, such as a crest, supporters, and other heraldic embellishments. The term " coat of arms " technically refers to the shield of arms itself, but the phrase is commonly used to refer to the entire achievement.
The shield above, which is the arms of Menzies, depicts a red chief placed on a silver shield, and its blazon is Argent, a chief gules. In heraldic blazon, a chief is a charge on a coat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the top edge of the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be ...
The German heraldic tradition is noted for its scant use of heraldic furs, multiple crests, inseparability of the crest, and repetition of charges in the shield and the crest. Mullets have six points (rather than five as in Gallo-British heraldry), and beasts may be colored with patterns , (barry, bendy, paly, chequy, etc. ).