Term |
Description |
Bailloné |
Applied to a lion holding a staff in his mouth |
Balista |
An engine to throw stones and darts, also called Swepe |
Banded |
Encircled with a band or ribband |
Bar |
Is the diminutive of the fess, and of the same form, containing one-fifth of the field, and may be placed in any part of the escutcheon |
Barbed |
Is derived from the French word "barbé". The five leaves wich appear on the outside of a full-blown rose are, in heraldry, called the barbs, and thus blazoned, a rose gules barbed and seeded proper |
Barded |
A horse in harness is said to be barded and caparisoned. |
Bar-gemel |
Two bars or barrulets placed parallel to each other, the word gemel being deroved from "Gemelli" twins |
Barnacles |
Instruments used by farriers to curb horses |
Barrulet |
The barrulet is one-fourth of a bar, and occupies a twentieth part of the field; never borne singly. Sometimes called a bracelet. When used in couples barrulets are bars gemel. |
Barry and barruly |
The division of the field by horizontal lines into a certain number of equal parts |
Basilisk |
An heraldic monster, ressembling in shape the wivern or cockatrice, but having, at the end of its tail, the head od a dragon |
Basnet (basinet) |
An old name for a helmet |
Baton |
Derived from the French word baston, staff or cudgel, and generally borne as a mark of bastardy. It does not go from side to side of the shield as the bend does; but is couped in the form of a trucheon |
Battled arrondie |
Denotes that the battlement is rounded at the top |
Battle-imbattled |
One battlement upon another |
Beaked |
When the beak and legs of a bird are of a different tincture from the body it is said to be beaked and membered of that tincture |
Belled |
When a falcon or hawk has bells affixed to its legs it is said to be belled. |
Bend |
Is formed by two lines drawn diagonally from the dexter chief to the sinister base, and comprises two parts of the shield |
Bendlet |
A diminutive of the bend. Generally it is half the width of the bend; but sometimes it appears much narrower |
Bendy |
Describes a field or charge divided, diagonally, into four, six, eight, or more egual parts |
Bezant |
The current coin of Byzantium, or Constantinople - in English heraldry, represented as round flat pieces of gold without impress |
Bezanté |
Semé de bezants |
Bicapitated |
Having two heads, such as the two-headed eagle on the arms of Russia, as well as on those of Austria |
Billeté |
Semé de billets |
Billets |
Are oblongs squares, by some supposed to represent brick, by other letters |
Bird-bolt |
A smal arrow with a blunt head |
Bitted |
Said of a horse when borne with a bit of a different tincture from the animal itself, when it is said to be bitted of that color. This term is also used to describe a horse's head with bit and rein; as, "Three horses' heads couped, bitted and reined or." |
Blood Color |
Sanguine |
Border or bordure |
Was formerly a mark of difference, to distinguish one branch of a family from another. Its surrounds the field, occupying one-fifth of it |
Botonny |
Applied to a cross, whose extremities resemble the trefoil |
Bottoned |
Having bottonies, buttons, round buds or knots. They are generally displayed in threes. The term is essentially the same as treffled (trefoiled) |
Bouget |
See water bouget |
Bowed |
Embowed or arched |
Braced |
same as interlaced |
Brassarts and brassets |
Armour for the elbows and arms |
Bretessé |
Imbattled, that has its battlements on each side, one against the other |
Bullet |
A name sometimes given to the ogress or pellet |
Burgonet |
A sort of steel cap, formerly worn by foot soldiers in battle |