Dictionary of Vexillology: A (Aqua - Argent)

Last modified: 2015-12-01 by rob raeside
Keywords: vexillological terms |
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On this page:

• AQUA
• AQUILA
• AQUILIFER
• ARAB LIBERATION COLOURS (or COLORS)
• ARCH-DUCAL (or ARCHDUCAL) BONNET (CORONET or HAT)
• ARCHED
• ARCHIEPISCOPAL CROSS
• ARCHIVEXILLIFER
• ARCHIVEXILLUM
• ARDENT
• ARGENT

AQUA

A heraldic term for the colour of water - see ‘proper’ in ‘Appendix III’.

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AQUILA

See ‘eagle 2)’.

Aquila/Eagle Standard of a Roman Legion (about.com)

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AQUILIFER

A bearer of the ancient Roman legionary eagle - see 'eagle 2)' (also 'vexillary' and 'vexilloid').

Aquilifer (Wikipedia)

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ARAB LIBERATION COLOURS (or COLORS)

1) A term used for the predominantly red white and black colours introduced by Egypt in their flag of 1958 – the colours of Arab liberation – but see note below.

2) See ‘pan-Arab colours’.

National Flag of Egypt 1958 – 1972 (fotw); National Flag of Egypt (fotw); National Flag of the Yemen (fotw); National Flag of Iraq (fotw)

Please note that the red, white and black (with or without a touch of green) introduced by Egypt in their tricolour of 1958 are included by some sources with the pan Arab Colours as referenced above.

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ARCH-DUCAL (or ARCHDUCAL) BONNET (CORONET or HAT)

See ‘coronet 2)’.

State Service Flag and Arms of Salzburg, Austria plus the Flag and Arms of Wallachia c1640 ensigned with an Arch-Ducal Bonnet (fotw)

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ARCHED

The heraldic term sometimes used in place of embowed when describing an ordinary that is bowed or bent – enarched - see ‘embowed’ (also ‘ordinary’).

Flag of Pleujouse, Switzerland; Arms and Flag of Austrheim, Norway (Tomislav Šipek & fotw)

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ARCHIEPISCOPAL CROSS

See ‘cross of Lorraine’.

Flag of Sarreguemines, France (fotw)

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ARCHIVEXILLIFER

An honorary title, now obsolete, for the chief standard or flag bearer to the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (see also ‘archivexillum’ and following note), and ‘gonfaloniership’).

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ARCHIVEXILLUM

A recently redefined term now intended to cover a flag design that is established – or recommended – by authority, and upon which other flags (adapted as required) may be based – a template flag. A typical example is the British blue ensign that acts as a basic template for other government flags, and for the flags of most British Overseas Territories (see also ‘archivexillifer’, ‘armorial ensign’, ‘armorial ensign 2)’, ‘colonial flags’, ‘blue ensign’). ‘defaced’, ‘core flag’, ‘undefaced’ and ‘warrant’).

From left: UK Blue Ensign (Graham Bartram); UK Customs Ensign (Graham Bartram); UK Fleet Auxiliary Ensign (Graham Bartram); Flag of Tristan da Cunha (Graham Bartram)

Please note that the word appears in a 19th Century German etymological dictionary as the origin of the term erzbanner (that may be translated as chief or imperial banner) but – with the exception of a possible relationship to the term archivexillifer - this is otherwise unsupported by further sources.

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ARDENT

See 'inflamed'.

Flag and Arms of Velika Ludina, Croatia (fotw)

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ARGENT

A heraldic term for the metal silver, it is generally shown as white in flags, but occasionally as grey, sometimes as silver leaf or metallic paint, or in an embroidered design, as silver thread (see 'Appendix III', 'embroider', and 'rule of tincture').

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