Gonʹfalon

or Gonfanon. An ensign or standard. A gonfalonier is a magistrate that has a gonfalon. (Italian, gonfaloʹne; French, gonfalon; Saxon, guth-fana, war-flag.) Chaucer uses the word gonfanon; Milton prefers gonfalon. Thus he says:—

“Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanced,

Standards and gonfalons, ʹtwixt van and rear

Stream in the air, and for distinction serve

Of hierarchies [3 syl.], of orders, and degrees.”

Paradise Lost, v. 589.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.