brisure

Etymology

French brisure, from briser (“to break”).

noun

  1. Any part of a rampart or parapet which deviates from the general direction.
  2. (heraldry) A mark of cadency or difference.
    The baton is made now very short by the French, who call it baton peri, and is always a brisure, frequently made use of by the younger sons of France, of which I have treated in my marks of cadency, and shall do so again[…] 1804, Alexander Nisbet, A system of heraldry ..., page 89
    But the bar (being a horizontal piece, a diminutive of the Fess), is not used like the French barre as a brisure for illegitimacy; a bar-sinister is an absurdity and impossibility. 1896, John Woodward, A Treatise on Heraldry, British and Foreign: With English and French Glossaries, page 172

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