Roundel (heraldry)

In some languages, the heraldic roundel has a unique name specific to its tincture, based on the Old French tradition. This is still observed in English-language heraldry, which adopted terms from Old French for specific round items.[2] Thus, while a gold roundel may be blazoned by its tincture, e.g., a roundel or, it is more often described as a bezant, from the Old French term besant for a gold coin, which itself is named for the Byzantine Empire.[1]

The terms and their origin can be seen in the following table:

	Metals		Colours
Tincture	Or	Argent	Gules	Azure	Sable	Vert	Purpure	Tenné	Sanguine
Name	Bezant	Plate	Torteau	Hurt	Pellet	Pomme	Golpe	Orange	Guze
Depiction
Origin and meaning	Fr. besant, 'gold coin'	Fr. plate, " flat metal disk"	Fr. torteau, 'tart'	Eng. "hurtleberry" or Fr. heurt, 'bruise'	Eng. "pellet"	Fr. pomme, 'apple'	Sp. golpe, 'wound'	Eng. "orange"	Uncertain[3]

A roundel vert ("green roundel") is known as a pomme, the French word for apple. It was frequently pluralised as pomeis – as in the Heathcote arms: Ermine, three pomeis, each charged with a cross or[1] – but pommes is now more common. The term for a red roundel, torteau, is typically pluralised in the French manner as torteaux rather than torteaus, although torteaus is occasionally seen. A pellet may also be called an ogress.[4]

In modern French-language blazonry, a roundel of any metal (Or or Argent) is a besant[5] (being specified as a "besant d'or" or a "besant d'argent"), and a roundel of any colour is a tourteau[6] (for instance, a blue roundel is a "tourteau d'azur"). However, an alternate naming system is occasionally, with similar terms as English heraldry (plate for argent,[7] heurte for azure (fr:azur),[8] ogress for sable, pomme for vert (fr:sinople), guse for gules (fr:gueules),[9] and gulpe for purpure (fr:pourpre)). Archaic names for roundels based on the French tradition are sometimes found in other languages, such as Spanish (see roel) and Portuguese (see arruela)

In German blazonry, the general word for a roundel is Kugel ('ball'); a roundel of silver can also be called Ball, and a roundel of gold Bille.

In their earliest uses, roundels were often strewn or sown as seeds (Latin: semen, -inis, a seed) upon the field of a coat of arms, blazoned as semée/semy, an arrangement with numerous varieties. For example, a field semy of plates (i.e. roundels argent) could be blazoned platy; a field semy of pellets (i.e. roundels sable) could be blazoned pellety. The precise number and placement of the roundels in such cases were usually left to the discretion of the artist.

• Annulet (heraldry)