Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A banner suspended from a crosspiece, especially as a standard in an ecclesiastical procession or as the ensign of a medieval Italian republic.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Originally, a banderole or small pennon attached to a lance or spear; an ensign or standard, especially one having two or three streamers or tails, fixed on a frame made to turn like a ship's vane, or suspended from a cross-yard, as in the case of the papal or ecclesiastical gonfalon. See
labarum .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The ensign or standard in use by certain princes or states, such as the mediæval republics of Italy, and in more recent times by the pope.
- noun A name popularly given to any flag which hangs from a crosspiece or frame instead of from the staff or the mast itself.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
standard orensign , consisting of a pole with acrosspiece from which abanner is suspended, especially as used in churchprocessions , but also for civic and military display.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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“For years now,” Vivar said quietly, “the gonfalon has been a royal treasure, but always my family has been its guardians.
Sharpe's Rifles Cornwell, Bernard 1988
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This man unfurled his gonfalon, and destroyed the houses of the Galletti, on account of a member of that family having slain one of the Florentine people in France.
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Above the gate of the stockade flew the gonfalon that Mintaka recognized at once: on it was depicted the severed head of a wild boar with its tongue lolling from the corner of its tusked jaws.
Warlock Smith, Wilbur 2001
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This was the largest of them all, and at the peak of her stubby mast she flew the snarling leopard head gonfalon and the gaudy colours of the House of Trok Uruk.
Warlock Smith, Wilbur 2001
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Not an old, threadbare, motheaten flag which crumbled to the air, but a new and glorious white banner of shining silk, crossed with red; the gonfalon of Santiago, and as it spread, so the bells began to ring.
Sharpe's Rifles Cornwell, Bernard 1988
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He had not come to Santiago de Compostela for the gonfalon.
Sharpe's Rifles Cornwell, Bernard 1988
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There was still no sign of Vivar, nor of Louisa, nor of the gonfalon.
Sharpe's Rifles Cornwell, Bernard 1988
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That streamer of silk was everything he hated in Spain; it stood for the old ways, for the domination of church over ideas, for the tyranny of a God he had rejected, and so the Count raked back his spurs and drove his horse into the men who guarded the gonfalon.
Sharpe's Rifles Cornwell, Bernard 1988
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He had been wrong about the southern attack, but if he was wrong now then the city, the gonfalon, and all his own men would be lost.
Sharpe's Rifles Cornwell, Bernard 1988
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The old gonfalon, Louisa told Sharpe, was sewn into the new.
Sharpe's Rifles Cornwell, Bernard 1988
reesetee commented on the word gonfalon
A banner suspended from a crosspiece, especially as a standard in an ecclesiastical procession. Also the ensign of a medieval Italian republic.
February 26, 2007
vanishedone commented on the word gonfalon
A variant of gonfanon.
August 9, 2008
milosrdenstvi commented on the word gonfalon
One who uses a gonfalon is called a gonfalonier.
August 14, 2008
bilby commented on the word gonfalon
Italian - gonfalone.
August 14, 2008
jaime_d commented on the word gonfalon
From "C. Musonius Rufus" by Guy Davenport
January 19, 2010
oroboros commented on the word gonfalon
I'm wondering if Kurt Vonnegut's granfalloon (Cat's Cradle) was inspired by this word.
May 1, 2010