/ · 1894 Brewer’s · G · Gonfalon
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
or Gonfanon. An ensign or standard. A gonfalonier is a magistrate that has a gonfalon. (Italian, gonfaloʹne; French, gonfalon; Saxon, guth-fana, war-flag.) Chaucer uses the word gonfanon; Milton prefers gonfalon. Thus he says:—
“Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced,
Standards and gonfalons, ʹtwixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve
Of hierarchies [3 syl.], of orders, and degrees.”
Paradise Lost, v. 589.
· ·
Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
· 
· 