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Glite Dictionary
🛡️ Heraldic wordplay 😏 Hypocritically moral
canting

canting

9.9
An image on a coat of arms that uses a picture to show the family's name
  • adjective
  • /ˈkæn.tɪŋ/
  • UK
translation icon : heráldico
  • The knight's canting arms featured a lion to represent his surname, Lyon.

Examples

  • A canting device on the shield cleverly alluded to the family's name through imagery.

  • Many medieval families used canting symbols to make their coats of arms memorable.

  • The canting arms featured a bear to represent the family name.

  • In heraldry, a canting crest can cleverly illustrate a surname.

  • The knight's canting arms depicted a bear, symbolizing his family name, which means 'bear' in Old English.

  • Heraldic artists often designed canting symbols that visually represented the bearers' names in creative ways.

  • The use of canting devices in shields allowed families to showcase their heritage through clever imagery.

Surface Forms

canting positive

Morphology

canting = cant (opaque) = cant + ing

The form is analyzable as cant + -ing, but the heraldic sense is a specialized technical usage that is not readily predictable for most learners.

Etymology

Canting in heraldry comes from an old word meaning 'to sing' or 'to speak', like the familiar word chant. A canting coat of arms 'speaks' the owner's name with a picture, which is why it is a visual pun.