# oriflamme
## English
### Alternative forms

* auriflamme, oriflamb (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Old French oriflambe, oriflamme, from Medieval Latin auriflamma (“golden flame”), from Latin aurum (“gold”) + flamma (“flame”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈɒɹɪflæm/

### Noun

oriflamme (plural oriflammes)
* (historical) The red silk banner of St Denis, which the abbot of St Denis gave to French kings as they rode to war in the Middle Ages.
** 1988, Robert Irwin, The Mysteries of Algiers, Dedalus, published 1993, page 58:The white banner with the golden lilies of France has been unfurled. The oriflamme has been presented to the virginal bride who stands before the altar in the forest chapel.
* (figuratively) Any banner, idea or principle which serves as a rallying point for those involved in a struggle.
** 1824, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Ivry:And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre.
** [1963, Anthony Burgess, Inside Mr Enderby:Please remember that the vocabulary of our readers isn’t very extensive, so don’t go using words like ‘oriflamme’ or ‘inelectable’.]
* (literary) Something resembling the banner of St Denis; a bright, shining object.
** 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):This is that famed Martial law, with its Red Flag, its 'Drapeau Rouge:' in virtue of which Mayor Bailly, or any Mayor, has but henceforth to hang out that new Oriflamme of his; then to read or mumble something about the King's peace; and, after certain pauses, serve any undispersing Assemblage with musket-shot....
** 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:On the other side Mailey's yellow beard flamed like an oriflamme.
** 1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, Penguin, published 2011, page 96:Lucette trotted into the room with a child's pink, stiff-bagged butterfly-net in her little fist, like an oriflamme.
** 1992, Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott-Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin, edited by D.J. Enright, Swann's Way, Folio Society, published 2005, page 417:Open spaces made visible the approach to almost every one of them, or else a splendid mass of foliage stood out before it like an oriflamme.

#### Translations
## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Old French oriflamme, orie flambe, from Medieval Latin auriflamma (“golden flame”), from Latin aurum (“gold”) + flamma.

### Pronunciation

IPA: /ɔ.ʁi.flɑm/, /ɔ.ʁi.flam/

### Noun

oriflamme f (plural oriflammes)
* (historical) oriflamme
* banner, standard
    L’oriflamme de Jeanne d’Arc, une église pavoisée d’oriflammes.The banner of Jeane d'Arc, a church bedecked with banners.

### Further reading

* “oriflamme”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

## Old French
### Etymology

[c. 1100, in the Chanson de Roland]
Attested as orie flambe, oriflambe. From Medieval Latin auriflamma (“golden flame”), from Latin aurum (“gold”) + flamma (“flame”).

### Noun

oriflamme oblique singular, f (oblique plural oriflammes, nominative singular oriflamme, nominative plural oriflammes)
* oriflamme

#### Descendants

* French: oriflamme
** → English: oriflamme