different between ensign vs gonfalon

English

Etymology

From Middle English ensigne, from Old French enseigne, from Latin ?nsignia, nominative plural of ?nsigne. Doublet of insignia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??n.s?n/, IPA^(key): /??n.s?n/, /??ns.n?/ IPA^(key): /??n.sa?n/
• Rhymes: -?ns?n

Noun

ensign (plural ensigns)

1. A badge of office, rank, or power.
2. The lowest grade of commissioned officer in the United States Navy, junior to a lieutenant junior grade.
3. A flag or banner carried by military units; a standard or color/colour.

   Synonym: ancient
4. (nautical) The principal flag or banner flown by a ship (usually at the stern) to indicate nationality.
5. Any prominent flag or banner.
   • 1667?, John Milton, Paradise Lost

     Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced.

6. (historical) A junior commissioned officer in the 18th and 19th centuries whose duty was to carry the unit's ensign.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:badge

(junior commissioned officer):

• coronet (cavalry equivalent of the infantry ensign)
• second lieutenant (OF-1), first NATO commissioned officer grade above OF-0 trainee officer

Derived terms

• ensign first class
• red ensign

Translations

Verb

ensign (third-person singular simple present ensigns, present participle ensigning, simple past and past participle ensigned)

1. (obsolete) To designate as by an ensign.
2. To distinguish by a mark or ornament.
3. (heraldry) To distinguish by an ornament, especially by a crown.

   Any charge which has a crown immediately above or upon it, is said to be ensigned.

Anagrams

• engins, genins

English

Alternative forms

• gonfalone
• gonfanon

Etymology

From Middle English gonfalon, from Old French gonfalon, from Frankish *gundfano, from Proto-Germanic *gunþifanô.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????n.f?.?l??n/

Noun

gonfalon (plural gonfalons)

1. A standard or ensign, consisting of a pole with a crosspiece from which a banner is suspended, especially as used in church processions, but also for civic and military display.
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, book 5, lines 588–590:

     Ten thousand thousand Ensignes high advanc'd,
     Standards, and Gonfalons twixt Van and Reare
     Streame in the Aire, and for distinction serve

   • 1910, July 12, Franklin Pierce Adams, poem “That Double Play Again” aka “Baseball's Sad Lexicon”, New York Evening Mail, page 6:

     Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble,
     Making a Giant hit into a double—
     Words that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
     “Tinker to Evers to Chance.”

   • 1922, Clark Ashton Smith, Quest:

     With vermilion leaf or bronze—
     Tatters of gorgeous gonfalons—

Translations

French

Alternative forms

• gonfanon

Etymology

From Old French gonfalon.

Noun

gonfalon m (plural gonfalons)

1. gonfalon

See also

• bannière, drapeau, enseigne, étendard

References

• “gonfalon” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Old French

Alternative forms

• gonfanon

Etymology

From Frankish *gundfano, from Proto-Germanic *gunþifanô.

Noun

gonfalon m (oblique plural gonfalons, nominative singular gonfalons, nominative plural gonfalon)

1. gonfalon

Derived terms

Descendants

• French: gonfalon
• ? Middle English: gonfalon
  • English: gonfalon
• ? Italian: gonfalone
• ? Middle Dutch: gonfaloen
  • Dutch: gonfalon, gonfalone

References

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (gonfalon, supplement)

Romanian

Etymology

From French gonfalon.

Noun

gonfalon n (plural gonfaloane)

1. gonfalon

Declension