Baton sinister
Baton sinister is a charge used in heraldry.
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[edit] Heraldic charge
It is a diminutive of the bend sinister and constitutes a narrow strip that runs from the upper right to the lower left of a coat of arms. It has been traditionally used as an indicator of an illegitimate birth in the family line. Sinister (meaning left in Latin) is merely a directional indicator.
The baton sinister can be seen in the arms of the Duke of Grafton, descended from an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England. Today, the College of Arms in England uses a bordure wavy to mark an armiger as illegitimate. The Court of the Lord Lyon in Scotland uses a bordure gobony to denote the same.
[edit] Bar sinister
In French blazon a bend sinister is called a barre. Sir Walter Scott is credited with giving literature the macaronic phrase bar sinister, which has become a metonymic term for bastardy. In English blazon a bar is a horizontal stripe, symmetric with respect to sinister and dexter. (Bar and barre are pronounced alike.)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Baton sinister in the arms of the Duke of Grafton
- Society for Creative Anachronism
- Pembley's Dictionary of Heraldry
[edit] References
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This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2009) |
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.
- Stephen Friar, Ed. A Dictionary of Heraldry. (Harmony Books, New York: 1987).
