repassant

English

Etymology

Compare French repassant, present participle.

Adjective

repassant (not comparable)

1. (heraldry, rare) Counterpassant.
   • 1638, John Guillim, A Display of Heraldrie, page 194:

     [...] Hee beareth, Sable, two lyoncels, the one paffant, the other repassant, Argent, both collared, Gules, but in mine opinion no man by this last blazon is able to tricke, or expresse the true portraiture and manner of the bearing of these lioncels, […]

   • 1891, Alden's Manifold Cyclopedia of Knowledge and Language, page 23:

     REPASSANT, a. [...] in her., term applied when two lions or other animals are borne going contrary ways, one of which is passant, by walking toward the dexter side of the shield in the usual way, and the other repassant by going toward the sinister.

   • 1995, Lynn Anne Jones, Between Byzantium and Islam: Royal Iconography and the Church of the Holy Cross at Aghtamar:

     […] To the right of the window is the image of a single passant repassant lion, which marches along the decorative […]

Further reading

• “repassant”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• 1847, Henry Gough, A Glossary of Terms Used in British Heraldry: With a Chronological Table, Illustrative of Its Rise and Progress, page 241:

  241 Counter passant, or Repassant: passant towards the sinister. Passant counter passant, or Passant repassant: walking side by side, but in contrary directions. It seems most proper that the beast passing towards the sinister should be uppermost, […]

Anagrams

• apartness, pars tensa

French

Participle

repassant

1. present participle of repasser

Anagrams

• parassent
• râpassent