oriflamme
See also: Oriflamme
English
Alternative forms
- auriflamme, oriflamb (obsolete)
Etymology
From Old French oriflambe, oriflamme, from Medieval Latin auriflamma (“golden flame”), from Latin aurum (“gold”) + flamma (“flame”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɒɹɪflæm/
Noun
oriflamme (plural oriflammes)
- (historical) The red silk banner of St Denis, which the abbot of St Denis gave to French kings as they rode to war.
- 1988, Robert Irwin, The Mysteries of Algiers, Dedalus, published 1993, page 58:
- The white banner with the golden lilies of France has been unfurled. The oriflamme has been presented to the virginal bride who stands before the altar in the forest chapel.
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- (figuratively) Any banner, idea or principle which serves as a rallying point for those involved in a struggle.
- 1824, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Ivry:
- And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre.
- 1963, Anthony Burgess, Inside Mr Enderby:
- Please remember that the vocabulary of our readers isn’t very extensive, so don’t go using words like ‘oriflamme’ or ‘inelectable’.
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- (literary) Something resembling the banner of St Denis; a bright, shining object.
- 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, OCLC 1026761782, (please specify the book or page number):
- This is that famed Martial law, with its Red Flag, its 'Drapeau Rouge:' in virtue of which Mayor Bailly, or any Mayor, has but henceforth to hang out that new Oriflamme of his; then to read or mumble something about the King's peace; and, after certain pauses, serve any undispersing Assemblage with musket-shot....
- 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
- On the other side Mailey's yellow beard flamed like an oriflamme.
- 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Penguin, published 2011, page 96:
- Lucette trotted into the room with a child's pink, stiff-bagged butterfly-net in her little fist, like an oriflamme.
- 1992, Marcel Proust, C.K. Scott-Moncrieff, Terence Kilmartin, transl.; D.J. Enright, editor, Swann's Way, Folio Society, published 2005, page 417:
- Open spaces made visible the approach to almost every one of them, or else a splendid mass of foliage stood out before it like an oriflamme.
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Translations
Translations
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French
Etymology
From Old French oriflamme, orie flambe, from Medieval Latin auriflamma (“golden flame”), from Latin aurum (“gold”) + flamma (“flame”).
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /ɔ.ʁi.flɑm/, /ɔ.ʁi.flam/
Noun
oriflamme f (plural oriflammes)
- (historical) oriflamme
- banner, standard
- L’oriflamme de Jeanne d’Arc, une église pavoisée d’oriflammes.
- The banner of Jeane d'Arc, a church bedecked with banners.
Further reading
- “oriflamme”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Old French
Etymology
[c. 1100, in the Chanson de Roland]
Attested as orie flambe, oriflambe. From Medieval Latin auriflamma (“golden flame”), from Latin aurum (“gold”) + flamma (“flame”).
Noun
oriflamme f (oblique plural oriflammes, nominative singular oriflamme, nominative plural oriflammes)
- oriflamme
Descendants
- French: oriflamme
- → English: oriflamme