1.
Glossary of vexillology
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Flag terminology is the nomenclature, or system of terms, used in vexillology, the study of flags, to describe precisely the parts, patterns, and other attributes of flags and their display. Badge A coat of arms or simple heraldic symbol, canton Any quarter of a flag, but commonly means the upper hoist quarter, such as the field of stars in the flag of the United States or the Union Jack in the Australian Flag. Charge A figure or symbol appearing in the field of a flag, emblem A device often used as a charge on a flag. It may be heraldic in origin or modern, for example the maple leaf on the Canadian Flag, field The background of a flag, the color behind the charges. Fimbriation A narrow edging or border, often in white or gold, for example the white and gold lines of the South African Flag. Fly The half or edge of a flag farthest away from the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the horizontal length of a flag. Hoist The half or edge of a flag nearest to the flagpole and this term also sometimes refers to the vertical width of a flag. Length The span of a flag along the side at right angles to the flagpole, width The span of a flag down the side parallel to the flagpole. Flags often inherit traits seen in traditional European heraldry designs and as a result patterns often share names, banderole or bannerol A small flag or streamer carried on the lance of a knight, or a long narrow flag flying from the mast-head of a ship. Banner Generically, a synonym for a flag of any kind, in heraldry, a flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms, but usually in a square or rectangular shape, also known as a banner of arms. Burgee A distinguishing flag of a recreational boating organisation, Civil ensign, merchant flag or merchant ensign A version of the national flag flown by civil ships to denote nationality. Civil flag A version of the flag flown by civilians on non-government installations or craft. Colour or color The flag of a military unit, courtesy flag or courtesy ensign A flag flown by a visiting ship in foreign waters as a token of respect. Ensign The flag of a ship or military unit, may also be used generically as a synonym for a flag of any kind. Fanion A small flag used by the French military, gonfalon, gonfanon or gonfalone A type of heraldic flag suspended from a crossbar. Guidon A small flag borne by a military unit, in Scots heraldry, a smaller version of the Standard. Pennon or pennant A flag larger at the hoist than at the fly, pipe banner A decorative flag for the Scottish Highland bagpipes. Prayer flag A type of flag found strung along mountain ridges and peaks in the Himalayas, rank flag or distinguishing flag The flag flown by a superior naval officer on his flagship or headquarters
2.
Civil flag
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A civil flag is a version of the national flag that is flown by civilians on nongovernmental installations or craft. The use of flags was more common in the past to denote buildings or ships not manned by the military. In some countries, the flag is the same as the war flag or state flag but without the coat of arms, such as in the case of Spain. In others, it is an alteration of the war flag, in Scandinavia, state and war flags can be double and triple-tailed variants of the Nordic Cross flag. Many countries, particularly those with a British heritage, still have distinctive civil flags for use at sea, many based on the Red Ensign
3.
State flag
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There are two separate meanings for the term of state flag in vexillology, the flag of the government of a sovereign state and the flag of an individual subnational state. A state flag is a variant of a national flag specifically designated and restricted by law or custom to use by a government or its agencies. For this reason they are referred to as government flags. Scandinavian countries also use swallowtailed state flags, to differentiate them from civil flags. In addition, some countries have state ensigns, separate flags for use by government ships such as guard vessels. For example, government ships in the United Kingdom fly the blue ensign, state flags should not be confused with the national flag as used by military organisations, these are referred to as war flags and naval ensigns. To avoid confusion with the first meaning of the term, however, such a flag would be more referred to as the flag of the state of X. For this usage, see also, Flags of the Australian states and territories Flags of Brazilian states Flags of the U. S. states Flags of German states Znamierowski, the world encyclopedia of flags, The definitive guide to international flags, banners, standards and ensigns
4.
Civil ensign
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Civil ensign is the ensign used by civilian vessels to denote nationality. It can be the same or different from the state ensign and its also known as the merchant ensign or merchant flag. Some countries have civil ensigns for yachts, and even for specific yacht clubs. Most countries have one national flag and ensign for all purposes. In other countries, a distinction is made between the flag and the civil, state and naval ensigns. The civil ensigns that are different from the flag can be grouped into a number of categories. Several countries use red flags with, in most cases, either the national flag or the Union Flag in the canton. British overseas territories fly the plain Red Ensign or a Red Ensign with the colonial arms in the fly. Saudi Arabia puts its national flag in the canton of an otherwise-green flag, Ghana stopped using its Red Ensign in 2003 with the adoption of a new merchant shipping act, which made the Ghanaian flag the proper national colors for Ghana ships. Similarly, Sri Lanka stopped using its Red Ensign in 1969, several countries have civil ensigns that are very different from the national flag, for instance Malta and Luxembourg. Well-known examples are the Italian civil ensign showing the shield with the arms of the sea republics or the Polish civil ensign with the arms of Poland, most of these emblems were added to distinguish the ensign from similar flags of other countries or from other signal flags. In several countries there are two versions of the flag, a simpler one and a more elaborate one with the national arms. The simpler one is used as ensign, whereas the version with the arms is mainly used by the government. In Spain and Argentina the flag without the arms is only a variant for civil use, in El Salvador, the civil ensign also differs from the national flag in the proportions. France is a case, the overall proportion is the same. Civil and merchant ensigns Civil air ensign
5.
Ensign
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Ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern of the ship, the naval ensign, used on warships, may be different from the civil ensign or the yacht ensign. Large versions of naval ensigns called battle ensigns are used when a warship goes into battle, the ensign differs from the jack which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel. In its widest sense, an ensign is just a flag or other standard, the European military rank of ensign, once responsible for bearing a units standard derives from it. In contrast, the Arab rank of ensign, liwa, derives from the command of a unit or units with an ensign, not the carrier of such a units ensign, and is a general officer. In Arab armies, ensign is a title equivalent to a Western brigade. In nautical use, the ensign is flown on a ship or boat to indicate its appartenance, while this includes its nationality, it may well indicate more information rather than being the national flag itself. This is particularly common for commonwealth and European countries, ensigns are usually at the stern flagstaff when in port, and may be shifted to a gaff or mast amidships when the ship is under way, becoming known as a steaming ensign. Vexillologists distinguish three varieties of a national flag used as an ensign, A civil ensign is worn by merchant. In some countries the yacht ensign, used on boats or ships instead of merchant vessels. A state ensign or government ensign is worn by government vessels, a naval ensign is used by a countrys navy. Such ensigns are strictly regulated and indicate if the vessel is a warship, a merchant ship, several Commonwealth countries national flags had their origin in the ensigns of their original colonising power, the United Kingdom. Most notable of these flags are those of Australia, New Zealand. It is also likely that the original design from which the flag of the United States developed was strongly influenced by the British Red Ensign or the flag of the East India Company. With the creation of independent air forces and the growth in aviation in the first half of the 20th century. These may be divided into air force ensigns and civil air ensigns, in heraldry, an ensign is the ornament or sign, such as the crown, coronet, or mitre, borne above the charge or arms. Distinguishing mark Maritime flag Znamierowski, Alfred, the world encyclopedia of flags, The definitive guide to international flags, banners, standards and ensigns
6.
Red
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Red is the color at the longer-wavelengths end of the spectrum of visible light next to orange, at the opposite end from violet. Red color has a predominant light wavelength of roughly 620–740 nanometers, light with a longer wavelength than red but shorter than terahertz radiation and microwave is called infrared. Red is one of the secondary colors, resulting from the combination of yellow. Traditionally, it was viewed as a primary colour, along with yellow and blue, in the RYB color space and traditional color wheel formerly used by painters. Reds can vary in shade from light pink to very dark maroon or burgundy. Red is the color of cyan. In nature, the red color of blood comes from hemoglobin, the red color of the Grand Canyon and other geological features is caused by hematite or red ochre, both forms of iron oxide. It also causes the red color of the planet Mars, the color of autumn leaves is caused by pigments called anthocyanins, which are produced towards the end of summer, when the green chlorophyll is no longer produced. One to two percent of the population has red hair, the color is produced by high levels of the reddish pigment pheomelanin. Since red is the color of blood, it has historically been associated with sacrifice, danger, modern surveys in the United States and Europe show red is also the color most commonly associated with heat, activity, passion, sexuality, anger, love and joy. In China, India and many other Asian countries it is the color of symbolizing happiness, since the 19th century, red has also been associated with socialism and communism. The word red is derived from the Old English rēad, the word can be further traced to the Proto-Germanic rauthaz and the Proto-Indo European root rewdʰ-. In Sanskrit, the word means red or blood. In the Akkadian language of Ancient Mesopotamia and in the modern Inuit language of Inuit, the words for colored in Latin and Spanish both also mean red. In Portuguese the word for red is vermelho, which comes from Latin vermiculus, in the Russian language, the word for red, Кра́сный, comes from the same old Slavic root as the words for beautiful—красивый and excellent—прекрасный. Thus Red Square in Moscow, named long before the Russian Revolution, in heraldry, the word gules is used for red. Red can vary in hue from orange-red to violet-red, and for each hue there is a variety of shades and tints. Red hematite powder was found scattered around the remains at a grave site in a Zhoukoudian cave complex near Beijing
7.
White
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White is an achromatic color, a color without hue. An incoming light to the eye that stimulates all its three types of color sensitive cone cells in nearly equal amounts results in white. White is one of the most common colors in nature, the color of sunlight, snow, milk, chalk, limestone, in many cultures white represents or signifies purity, innocence, and light, and is the symbolic opposite of black, or darkness. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, white is the color most often associated with perfection, the good, honesty, cleanliness, the beginning, the new, neutrality, and exactitude. In ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, priestesses wore white as a symbol of purity, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance a white unicorn symbolized chastity, and a white lamb sacrifice and purity, the widows of kings dressed in white rather than black as the color of mourning. It was also used in 20th century modern architecture as a symbol of modernity, simplicity. White is an important color for almost all world religions, the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has worn white since 1566, as a symbol of purity and sacrifice. In Islam, and in the Shinto religion of Japan, it is worn by pilgrims, in Western cultures and in Japan, white is the most common color for wedding dresses, symbolizing purity and virginity. In many Asian cultures, white is also the color of mourning, the white color on television screens and computer monitors is created with the RGB color model by mixing red, green and blue light at equal intensities. The word white continues Old English hwīt, ultimately from a Common Germanic *χwītaz also reflected in OHG wîz, ON hvítr, the root is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European language *kwid-, surviving also in Sanskrit śveta to be white or bright and Slavonic světŭ light. The Icelandic word for white, hvítur, is derived from the Old Norse form of the word hvítr. Common Germanic also had the word *blankaz, borrowed into Late Latin as *blancus, the antonym of white is black. Some non-European languages have a variety of terms for white. The Inuit language has seven different words for seven different nuances of white, Japanese has six different words, depending upon brilliance or dullness, or if the color is inert or dynamic. White was one of the first colors used in art, the Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. Paleolithic artists used calcite or chalk, they sometimes as a background, sometimes as a highlight, along with charcoal and red, in ancient Egypt, white was connected with the goddess Isis. The priests and priestesses of Isis dressed only in white linen, in Greece and other ancient civilizations, white was often associated with mothers milk. In Greek mythology, the chief god Zeus was nourished at the breast of the nymph Amalthea, in the Talmud, milk was one of four sacred substances, along with wine, honey, and the rose
8.
Black
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Black is the darkest color resulting from the absence or complete absorption of light. Like white and grey, it is a color, literally a color without hue. It is one of the four colors in the CMYK color model, along with cyan, yellow. Black is often used to represent darkness, it is the symbolic opposite of white, Black was one of the first colors used by artists in neolithic cave paintings. In the 14th century, it began to be worn by royalty and it became the color worn by English romantic poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, according to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, evil, and elegance. More distant cognates include Latin flagrare, and Ancient Greek phlegein, the Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different colors, if they had the same intensity. Kuanos could mean both dark blue and black, the Ancient Romans had two words for black, ater was a flat, dull black, while niger was a brilliant, saturated black. Ater has vanished from the vocabulary, but niger was the source of the country name Nigeria the English word Negro, old High German also had two words for black, swartz for dull black and blach for a luminous black. These are parallelled in Middle English by the terms swart for dull black, swart still survives as the word swarthy, while blaek became the modern English black. In heraldry, the used for the black color is sable, named for the black fur of the sable. Black was one of the first colors used in art, the Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They began by using charcoal, and then made more vivid black pigments by burning bones or grinding a powder of manganese oxide, for the ancient Egyptians, black had positive associations, being the color of fertility and the rich black soil flooded by the Nile. It was the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld, who took the form of a black jackal, and offered protection against evil to the dead. For the ancient Greeks, black was also the color of the underworld, separated from the world of the living by the river Acheron and those who had committed the worst sins were sent to Tartarus, the deepest and darkest level. In the center was the palace of Hades, the king of the underworld, Black was one of the most important colors used by ancient Greek artists. In the 6th century BC, they began making pottery and later red figure pottery. In black-figure pottery, the artist would paint figures with a clay slip on a red clay pot
9.
Eagle of Saladin
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The Eagle of Saladin or as the Republican Eagle is a heraldic eagle used as an emblem in Arab nationalism and in the coat of arms and flags of the Arab world. It is currently used as part of coat of arms of Egypt, Iraq, the association with Saladin is due to the depiction of an eagle on the west wall of the Cairo Citadel built under Saladin, although the eagle itself is of more recent date. The eagle in the Citadel of Cairo is of uncertain date. The eagle is headless and is assumed to have originally been a double-headed eagle, the Cairo Citatel is not its original location, it has been transferred there from an unknown location at an unknown time prior to 1670. While the Pan-Arab colors of the Flag of the Arab Revolt date to the early 20th century, the eagle as a symbol of Republic of Egypt was introduced in the Egyptian revolution of 1952. The emblem was inherited by the coat of arms of the United Arab Republic of 1958, the Federation of Arab Republics established by Muammar Gaddafi in 1972 at first adopted a Hawk of Quraish as its emblem, but this was replaced by the Arab eagle in 1984. Conversely, the Gaddafis Libyan Arab Republic in 1969 also adopted the eagle, in the Egyptian revolution of 2011, the eagle was associated with the Mubarak regime. Mehrez describes a stenciled graffiti depicting the Eagle of Saladin turned upside down as a call for the regimes downfall. Ganzeer, an Egyptian graphics artist widely known for his street art, explains, The current Eagle of Saladin emblem in the white band of the flag, however. The current eagle on our flag belongs to Mubaraks regime and this connection of the Eagle of Saladin with the Mubarak regime provides the key to understanding this stencil piece
10.
War flag
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A war flag, also known as a military flag or a battle flag, is a variant of a national flag for use by a countrys military forces when on land. The nautical equivalent is a naval ensign, under the strictest sense of the term, few countries today currently have proper war flags, most preferring to use instead their state flag or standard national flag for this purpose. And either victory, or else a grave, field signs were used in early warfare at least since the Bronze Age. The word standard itself is from an Old Frankish term for a field sign, the use of flags as field signs apparently emerges in Asia, during the Iron Age, possibly in either China or India. Early field signs that include, but are not limited to a flag, are also called vexilloid or flag-like, the Roman Vexillum itself is also flag-like in the sense that it was suspended from a horizontal crossbar as opposed to a simple flagpole. Use of simple flags as military ensigns becomes common during the medieval period, the maritime flag also develops in the medieval period. The medieval Japanese Sashimono carried by foot-soldiers are a parallel development, some medieval free cities or communes did not have coats of arms, and used war flags that were not derived from a coat of arms. Thus, the city of Lucerne used a flag as a field sign from the mid 13th century. Colours, standards and guidons Wise, Terence Military flags of the world, FIAV Flag Information Symbols at Flags of the World
Flag of the Khedivate of Egypt (1881–1914) and the Sultanate of Egypt (1914–1922)
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flag of the United Arab Republic (1958–1971) – though Syria withdrew from the union in 1961, Egypt retained the official name until 1971.svg)
