countervairy

English

Alternative forms

• counter-vairy, counter vairy

Etymology

From counter- +‎ vairy.

Adjective

countervairy (not comparable)

1. (heraldry, of a field or charge, rare) Divided into a countervair pattern of two or more tinctures.
   • 1924, Thomas Benolt, The Visitations of Kent ..., page 86:

     Bufkin. Arms.—Or, a chevron between three close helmets azure. [...] A shield [blank] impaling: Quarterly: 1, Per fess azure [and argent], a pale countercharged between three bucks' heads, two and one, erased [or]; [...] 3, Ermine, a fess counter vairy or and gules; [...] Another shield [blank] impaling: [...] 6, Counter vairy argent and azure, a canton gules.

   • 1961, Seymour de Ricci, William Jerome Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, page 1816:

     In the border of a miniature, the arms of the first owner, apparently a member of the Van Varssenaere family of Bruges (1, sable three daggers proper in bend; 2, sable three sheaves of wheat or; 3, argent vairy countervairy gules; 4, azure six ears of wheat or, 3, 2, 1).

   • 2014 April 24, Patrick Lepetit, The Esoteric Secrets of Surrealism: Origins, Magic, and Secret Societies, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:

     […] and finally that of Vaché: “Vairy and countervairy in three tiers of gold and purple, with a silver chief charged by two facing sable sphinxes, placed over the partition."

Translations

Translations

• French: contrevairé (fr)

References

• 1906, William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, page 1307:

  counter-vairy (koun-tér-vãr'i), a. In her., charged with a pattern differing from vair in having each cu or unit of the diaper coubled, pointing down as well as up. This bearing is considered one of the furs. See fur. Also counter-vair, contre-vair.