barry
.
Searchable Lemmata: barrer (AF), barrare (L), barren (ME), barry (MdE).
Alternate Forms: barrarum, barrata, barratam, barratis, barré, barreare, barree, barreé, barrés, barreys.
Definitions and Defining Citations:
1a(adj.)
Decoration;
heraldic usage of the French term barré 'barred' (q.v.), 'banded or striped; ornamented with bars'. Specifically: divided into an even number of parts by horizontal bars of alternating colours.(1250 - circa 1400)
1. [47] ... En la baner jaune avoit Fesse entre deus cheverons vermaus ... [50] ... La bende de or engreellie Portoit en la rouge baniere ... [66] ... o baniere barree De or e de goules ... Banier avoit e par droit conte De sis pecys la vous mesur, Barree de argent e de asur
Accounts.
[AND Eight Rolls (102.47-66) post 1250]
2. [126] ... vocatur crux nodulata, id est fibulata, quia fines ejus aptantur ad modum nodi sive fibule. ... crux florida nodulata ... habet flores in finibus suis et in quolibet puncto cujusque floris habet unum nodum sive fibulam ... [128] ... arma ... vocantur ~ata quia aptantur ad modum barrarum ... [129] ... sunt etiam arma quedam que vocantur bandaria; ... et vocantur bandaria quia sunt quasi de bandis facta
[DMLBS BAD. AUR. (126-129) circa 1400]
Sex: N/A Ceremonial: Yes
Body Parts: N/A.
1b(adj.)
Decoration;
studded.(circa 1300)
Sex: N/A Ceremonial: No
Body Parts: N/A.
1c(n.)
Decoration;
as a noun, arms or device in a barry pattern.(circa 1486)
Sex: Male Ceremonial: No
Body Parts:
Etymological Evidence:
Definite, This is the same word as barré, psp. of French barrer 'barred' (q.v.), with a specific heraldic sense current in Modern English. The word 'barry' is not attested in English in this form until the late fifteenth century; but rather the past-participle-as-adjective form 'barred'.
WF: Borrowed into the British Isles
Etym Cog: barré.
References:
Art and Illustration:
In the medieval period, barry (and equivlents) was used to describe a field divided by bars or smaller bands.
The formalised customary heraldic usage of the sixteenth century and later has a bar occupying about 1/5 of the heraldic field, a closet being half the siza of the bar and a barrulet half the size of the closet (i.e. 1/20 of the field). These latter terms are not found in medieval British sources; see discussion at barrula and burlure.
