gonfalon
Americannoun
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a banner suspended from a crossbar, often with several streamers or tails.
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a standard, especially one used by the medieval Italian republics.
noun
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a banner hanging from a crossbar, used esp by certain medieval Italian republics or in ecclesiastical processions
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a battle flag suspended crosswise on a staff, usually having a serrated edge to give the appearance of streamers
Etymology
Origin of gonfalon
1585–95; < Italian gonfalone < Middle French gonfalon, gonfanon < Germanic; see gonfanon
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The shirt was a gonfalon of the future.
From Time Magazine Archive
Is Tara Boom-de-aye the battle-hymn and the theater hat the blazing gonfalon of him who strove with Omnipotence for universal empire?
From Brann the Iconoclast — Volume 12 by Brann, William Cowper
The gonfalon might flutter, and the knight, with all his train, ride stately amidst the white range of tents; the archer might lean upon his bow and gaze upon the splendour of the host.
From William Shakespeare as he lived. An Historical Tale by Curling, Henry
All this is, we see, the ideational gonfalon under which surge the romanticists; but from the evidence at hand it is the banner to which life also bears allegiance.
From Chivalry by Cabell, James Branch
The fountain shone, the displayed Graces jetted their crystal store; from every window hung carpets, on every tower a gonfalon, from every church belfry came the riot of bells.
From Little Novels of Italy by Hewlett, Maurice Henry
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
