A goutte is a droplet-shaped

charge Charge or charged may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary Music * ''Charge'' (David Ford album) * ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album) * ''Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...

used in heraldry. Its name derives from the

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intellig ...

for "droplet". A goutte may be

blazon In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vi ...

ed by its

tincture A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...

, as in a ''goutte argent'' (literally "a silver droplet"). Alternatively, there are special names given to gouttes of various tinctures, as in a ''goutte d'eau'' (literally "a droplet of water"). In some

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

depictions of coats of arms, the goutte was drawn with wavy sides (as shown above). More modern depictions have smoothed the sides to make the droplets fatter and more symmetrical - as also seen in the arms on the personal seal used from 1353 by Elizabeth de Burgh, Lady of Clare, and on the 1359 seal of Clare College, Cambridge. In their earliest uses, gouttes were

semé In heraldry, variations of the field are any of a number of ways that a field (or a charge) may be covered with a pattern, rather than a flat tincture or a simple division of the field. Blazoning of French adjectives Variations of the field pre ...

: strewn upon the field of a coat of arms. Rather than ''semé de gouttes'', this is termed goutty, gutté, or gutty ( French ''gouttée''). It was only much later that the goutte came to be used individually in heraldry as a charge in its own right.

References

* * * * * Heraldic charges {{heraldry-stub fr:Liste des meubles héraldiques#Goutte

See also

References