Tabard A tabard is a short coat common for men during the Middle Ages . Generally used while outdoors , the coat was either sleeveless or had short sleeves or shoulder pieces . In its more developed form it was open at the sides ; and it could be worn with or without a belt . Though most were ordinary garments , often workclothes , tabards might be emblazoned on the front and back with a coat of arms , and in this ( livery ) form they survive now as the distinctive garment of officers of arms . In modern British usage , the term has been revived for what is known in American English as a cobbler apron : a lightweight open - sided upper overgarment , of similar design to its medieval and heraldic counterpart , worn in particular by workers in the catering , cleaning and healthcare industries as protective clothing , or outdoors by those requiring high - visibility clothing . Middle Ages . A tabard ( from the French " tabarde " ) was originally a humble outer garment of tunic form , generally without sleeves , worn by peasants , monks and foot - soldiers ( including the " plowman " in Chaucer ' s " Canterbury Tales " ) . In this sense , the earliest citation recorded in the " Oxford English Dictionary " dates from c . 1300 . The Tabard is also the name of the inn at which the principal characters meet in the " General Prologue " to the " Canterbury Tales " . By the second half of the 15th century , tabards , now open at the sides and so usually belted , were also being worn by knight s in military contexts over their armour , and were usually emblazoned with their arms ( though sometimes worn plain ) . The " Oxford English Dictionary " first records this use of the word in English in 1450 . Tabards were apparently distinguished from surcoat s by being open - sided , and by being shorter . In its later form , a tabard normally comprised four textile panels – two large panels hanging down the wearer ' s front and back , and two smaller panels hanging over his arms as " sleeves " – each emblazoned with the same coat of arms . Tabards became an important means of battlefield identification with the development of plate armour as the use of shields declined . They are frequently represented on tomb effigies and monumental brass es of the late 15th and early 16th centuries . A very expensive , but plain , garment described as a tabard is worn by Giovanni Arnolfini in the Arnolfini Portrait of 1434 ( National Gallery , London ) . This may be made of silk and or velvet , and is trimmed and fully lined with fur , possibly sable . At Queens College , Oxford , the scholars on the foundation were called tabarders , from the tabard ( not in this case an emblazoned garment ) which they wore . British heraldry . By the end of the 16th century , the tabard was particularly associated with officers of arms . John Stow wrote in 1598 : " Now these Tabardes are onely worne by the Heraults , and bee called their coates of Armes in service . " In the case of Royal officers of arms , the tabard is emblazoned with the coat of arms of the sovereign . Private officers of arms , such as still exist in Scotland , making use of tabards emblazoned with the coat of arms of the person who employs them . In the United Kingdom the different ranks of officers of arms can be distinguished by the fabric from which their tabards are made . The tabard of a king of arms is made of velvet , the tabard of a herald of arms of satin , and that of a pursuivant of arms of damask silk . The oldest surviving English herald ' s tabard is that of Sir William Dugdale as Garter King of Arms ( 1677 – 1686 ) . It was at one time the custom for pursuivants to wear their tabards " athwart " , that is to say with the sleeves at the front and back ; but this practice was ended during the reign of James II and VII . Canadian heraldry . In the Diamond Jubilee year of the Queen of Canada , the Governor General unveiled a new tabard for the use of the Chief Herald of Canada . This new royal blue tabard , for exclusively Canadian use and of uniquely Canadian design , is a modern take on the traditional look . The tabard differs from others of more traditional design in that the Canadian royal arms appear on the sleeves , while the front and back of the tabard are covered with Canadian Indian - inspired emblematic representations of the raven - polar bears of the Canadian Heraldic Authority ' s coat of arms .