Vexillological Glossary

A reference of 81 terms used in flag design, manufacture, protocol and study.

A

All-over charge

An **all-over charge** is a single device that occupies the whole or substantially the whole of a flag's field, rather than being confined to a portion of it. Such charges…

Argent

**Argent** is the heraldic tincture silver, depicted in practice as white. With Or it makes up the two heraldic metals. In monochrome engravings argent is shown by leaving the surface…

Azure

**Azure** is the heraldic tincture blue. The word derives, via Old French, from the Persian *lazhuward*, the lapis lazuli stone from which the pigment ultramarine was made. In monochrome engravings…

B

Banner

A **banner** is a flag, usually rectangular and longer along the hoist than the fly, displaying the arms or device of a person, family or institution. Heraldic banners reproduce the…

Bicolour

A **bicolour** is a flag composed of two bands or fields of contrasting tinctures, with no further charge. Bicolours may be horizontal, vertical or divided diagonally. The form is older…

Blazoning

**Blazoning** is the formal description of an heraldic design in the precise technical language of heraldry. A blazon names the tinctures, ordinaries and charges of a shield or flag in…

Burgee

A **burgee** is a small, distinguishing flag flown by a yacht to identify the club to which it belongs, or by the commodore of a club to mark his command.…

C

Canton

A **canton** is a rectangular area placed in the upper hoist corner of a flag, occupying roughly a quarter of the field. It is the most honourable position in a…

Canton-and-field

**Canton-and-field** describes a design in which a distinguishing canton in the upper hoist sits upon a field that is otherwise plain or simply striped. The form is the basis of…

Charge

A **charge** is any emblem, figure or device placed upon the field of a flag. Charges may be geometric (crosses, saltires, bars), heraldic (lions, eagles, crowns), symbolic (stars, crescents) or…

Charged

**Charged** is the adjectival form indicating that a field or other portion of a flag bears a charge. A flag may be described as 'gules, charged with a crescent argent'…

CMYK

**CMYK** — cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black) — is the four-colour process used in print reproduction and one of the standard ways of specifying flag colours for printed materials.…

Color (heraldic)

A **colour** in heraldic tincture is any tincture that is not a metal or a fur: Gules (red), Azure (blue), Sable (black), Vert (green) and Purpure (purple), together with the…

Construction sheet

A **construction sheet** is the technical drawing that defines the geometry of a flag: the ratio of the field, the widths and positions of stripes, the sizes and offsets of…

Courtesy flag

A **courtesy flag** is a small national flag flown by a visiting foreign vessel from the starboard yardarm or foremast to indicate respect for the host country. The courtesy flag…

Crescent

A **crescent** is a charge in the form of a stylised waxing or waning moon, with its horns turned to one side. The crescent has been associated with Islam since…

Cross

A **cross** in vexillology is a charge consisting of two intersecting bars, usually one horizontal and one vertical. The cross is among the oldest and most widely used flag devices.…

D

Defacement

**Defacement** is the addition of a charge, badge or other distinguishing device to an existing flag in order to create a new or subordinate design. The practice is most common…

Dexter

**Dexter** is a heraldic term, retained in vexillology, denoting the side of a flag or shield that is on the bearer's right and therefore on the viewer's left. The dexter…

E

Ensign

An **ensign** is the national flag flown by a vessel at sea, or by a military formation, to identify its nationality or allegiance. Many states maintain separate civil, state and…

Ensign at sea

An **ensign at sea** is the national or service flag flown by a vessel to declare its nationality and, in the case of warships, its service. When at sea, the…

F

**FIAV**, the *Federation internationale des associations vexillologiques*, is the international body that federates national and regional vexillological associations. Founded in 1969 at the third International Congress of Vexillology in Boston,…

Field

The **field** is the background surface of a flag, upon which charges are laid. A field may be of a single tincture (a plain field), divided into stripes or quarters,…

Fimbriated

**Fimbriated** is the adjectival form describing a charge or partition that has been given a narrow border of contrasting tincture. A cross fimbriated argent on a field gules is a…

Fimbriation

**Fimbriation** is a narrow border of contrasting colour placed around a charge or along the edge of a stripe, used principally to separate two tinctures that would otherwise sit directly…

Finial

A **finial** is the ornamental cap or terminal fitted to the top of a flagstaff. Finials may take the form of a ball, spearhead, eagle, fleur-de-lys or other emblem, and…

Flag day

A **flag day** is a date set by law or custom on which the national flag is flown in honour of a national event, person or institution. Flag days are…

Fly

The **fly** is the half of a flag farthest from the staff, opposite the hoist, and the term also refers to the free vertical edge that flaps in the wind.…

Fly-end

The **fly-end** is the free vertical edge of a flag, opposite the hoist. It is the edge most exposed to wind, and on flags in regular use it is often…

Full-staff

**Full-staff** (or full-mast at sea) is the normal position of a flag, with the hoist edge two-blocked at the truck of the staff. A flag flown at full-staff signals ordinary…

G

Geometric construction

**Geometric construction** is the system of proportional rules by which the elements of a flag — stripes, crosses, triangles, charges — are sized and positioned, expressed as fractions of the…

Gonfalon

A **gonfalon** is a flag suspended from a horizontal crossbar carried on a vertical staff, rather than bent on by its hoist edge. The lower edge is often cut into…

Gules

**Gules** is the heraldic tincture red. The name probably derives from Old French *gueules*, the red-dyed throats of fur used in medieval clothing. In monochrome engravings gules is conventionally indicated…

H

Half-mast

**Half-mast** is the maritime term for a flag lowered from the truck as a mark of mourning or respect; ashore the equivalent is half-staff in American usage, half-mast or half-staff…

Half-staff

**Half-staff** is the position of a flag flown lowered from the truck of the staff, conventionally to a point one flag-depth below the top, as a sign of mourning, distress…

Halyard

A **halyard** is the rope or line used to hoist and lower a flag along a staff or mast. The halyard runs through a block at the top of the…

Hex

**Hex** colour codes are a compact six-digit hexadecimal notation of RGB values, in the form #RRGGBB. Each pair of characters expresses one channel in the range 00-FF. Hex is the…

Hoist

In vexillology, the **hoist** is the half of a flag nearest the staff or pole, and also the vertical edge of the flag attached to the halyard. The hoist is…

Hoist-end

The **hoist-end** is the vertical edge of a flag attached to the staff, halyard or sleeve. It is the edge by which the flag is bent on to its means…

Hoisting

**Hoisting** is the act of raising a flag from the foot of the staff to its display position. Protocol requires that a flag be hoisted briskly, in contrast to the…

Horizontal tricolour

A **horizontal tricolour** is a flag divided into three bands of equal width running parallel to the fly. The horizontal tricolour was popularised in the nineteenth century as a republican…

I

ISO 3166

**ISO 3166** is the international standard that assigns two-letter, three-letter and numeric codes to the countries, territories and subdivisions of the world. The two-letter alpha-2 codes (such as FR for…

J

Jack

A **jack** is a small flag flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a warship when at anchor or alongside, to indicate the vessel's nationality independently of the ensign…

Jack at bow

**Jack at bow** describes the practice of flying a jack from a small staff at the bow of a warship when at anchor or alongside, in addition to the ensign…

L

Lowering

**Lowering** a flag is the act of taking it down from the staff or mast. In formal protocol, lowering is performed slowly and with ceremony, in contrast to the brisk…

M

Metal (heraldic)

A **metal** in heraldic tincture is one of the two pale tinctures, Or (gold/yellow) and Argent (silver/white). The rule of tincture forbids placing a metal upon a metal or a…

Monochrome

A **monochrome** flag is one displayed in a single tincture, without contrasting bands or charges. Plain monochrome flags are uncommon among modern national designs but have historical and ideological significance:…

N

Nordic colors

The **Nordic colours** are the specific national palettes carried by the Nordic cross flags of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Each is built on the same…

Nordic cross

The **Nordic cross** is a design in which a cross of one colour is set on a field of another, with the vertical arm displaced toward the hoist so that…

O

Or

**Or** is the heraldic tincture gold, depicted in practice as yellow. Together with Argent it forms the two metals. In monochrome engravings or is indicated by a pattern of fine…

P

Pan-African colors

The **pan-African colours** are red, gold and green, derived from the flag of Ethiopia, the only African state to maintain its independence through the era of European colonialism. Adopted in…

Pan-Arab colors

The **pan-Arab colours** are black, white, green and red, drawn from the verses of the thirteenth-century poet Safi al-Din al-Hilli that name them as the colours of Arab history: the…

Pan-Iranian colors

The **pan-Iranian colours** are green, white and red, the three bands of the modern flag of Iran and the historical tricolour of Persia introduced in the nineteenth century. The colours…

Pan-Slavic colors

The **pan-Slavic colours** are white, blue and red, adopted by the first Pan-Slavic Congress at Prague in 1848 on the model of the Russian tricolour of Peter the Great. They…

Pantone

**Pantone** is a proprietary colour-matching system widely used to specify the exact tinctures of national flags for manufacture. A flag specification given in Pantone references a particular ink formula that…

Pennant

A **pennant** is a long, narrow, tapering flag, usually triangular or with a swallow-tailed fly. Pennants are used at sea as signals, as commissioning pennants on warships, and ashore for…

Pennon

A **pennon** is a small, tapering or triangular flag, in medieval heraldry the personal flag of a knight bachelor, fixed to the head of a lance. Pennons bore the knight's…

Proportions

**Proportions** in vexillology refer to the relative dimensions of a flag's elements, including the overall ratio of hoist to fly and the relative widths and positions of stripes, cantons and…

Q

Q flag

The **Q flag**, or quarantine flag, is the signal flag of the letter Q in the International Code of Signals: a plain yellow rectangle. Flown alone by a vessel entering…

Quartered

A **quartered** flag or shield is divided into four equal parts by a vertical and a horizontal line meeting at the centre, each quarter bearing its own charge or tincture.…

R

Ratio

The **ratio** of a flag is the proportion of its hoist (height) to its fly (length), expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, such as 2:3 or 1:2. Ratio…

Ratio codification

**Ratio codification** is the formal expression of a flag's hoist-to-fly proportions in law or regulation. National practice varies: some states fix only the ratio and leave details to manufacturers, while…

RGB

**RGB** — red, green and blue — is the additive colour model used to specify colours on emitting displays such as monitors, televisions and projectors. RGB values, each in the…

S

Sable

**Sable** is the heraldic tincture black, named from the dark fur of the sable marten used in medieval clothing. In monochrome engravings sable is shown by crossed vertical and horizontal…

Saltire

A **saltire** is a diagonal cross, formed by two bars running from corner to corner. In heraldry the saltire is an ordinary; in flags it is the dominant device on…

Sharifian colors

The **Sharifian colours** are the four tinctures — black, white, green and red — chosen by the Hashemite Sharif Hussein of Mecca for the Flag of the Arab Revolt of…

Signal flag

A **signal flag** is one of a set of flags forming an established code for communication between vessels or between ship and shore. The International Code of Signals comprises twenty-six…

Sinister

**Sinister** is the heraldic term for the side of a flag or shield on the bearer's left, which appears on the viewer's right. It corresponds to the fly side of…

Standard

A **standard** is a personal or institutional flag, traditionally long and tapering, bearing the badges and mottoes of its owner. In medieval European practice the standard was distinct from the…

Star

A **star** is one of the most common charges in modern flag design. Stars vary in the number of their points — five, six, seven, eight and more — and…

Sunrise-to-sunset rule

The **sunrise-to-sunset rule** is the convention, observed in most jurisdictions, that flags are displayed from sunrise to sunset only, and at no other times unless they are illuminated through the…

Swallow-tail

A **swallow-tail** is a flag whose fly-end is cut into two tapering points separated by a triangular indentation, suggestive of a swallow's tail. The shape is associated with cavalry guidons,…

T

Texas v. Johnson (1989)

Texas v. Johnson, 491 U.S. 397 (1989), is the United States Supreme Court decision holding that flag desecration is expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment. The 5–4 ruling invalidated…

Tincture

In heraldry, a **tincture** is any of the recognised colours, metals or furs used in the composition of arms. Tinctures are divided into two principal classes, metals and colours, with…

Tricolour

A **tricolour** is a flag composed of three bands of equal width and contrasting tinctures. The form may be horizontal or vertical and is the dominant pattern of modern national…

U

Undefaced

**Undefaced** describes a flag that bears no additional charge, badge or device beyond its basic field or partition. The plain Red, White and Blue ensigns of the United Kingdom, flown…