Home > Variations of ordinaries

The arms of Champagne show cotices "potented and counter potented," while the cotises of Timothy Hugh Stewart Duke have "upper edges in the form of the upper rim of a ducal coronet."

An ordinary which appears to have a circular form in the middle is described as nowy, while an ordinary appearing to have a square form is called quadrate; these can only be applied to certain ordinaries, including the cross, the pale, and the fess, but not, for example, a bordure , saltire, or chevron.

An ordinary (often a cross) can be facetted.[1]

The term embowed is almost invariably applied to the chevron; this means that the upper two lines defining the chevron are concave, and the bottom two lines follow in parallel.

An ordinary rompu is "broken" in some way, though the form of the breaking may vary considerably and often must be further described to avoid confusion. An example is the chevronels rompu in the arms of Danzé , Loir et Cher , France. "Rompu" should be distinguished from "fracted"; one way in which the terms differ is that fracted can be applied to objects other than ordinaries and "fracted" cannot.

An ordinary affaissée, in French heraldry, is wavy in the form of a depression in its middle.

The chevron écimé has the top "blunted"; i.e. squared off rather than meeting in a point.

When an ordinary is shown higher than what would be its regular position in the field, it is called enhanced. When depicted lower, it is described as debased or abased. These are to be distinguished from ordinaries in chief (in the chief of the field) or in base.