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Fylfot
The fylfot or fylfot cross (/ˈfɪlfɒt/ FILL-fot) and its mirror image, the gammadion, are types of truncated swastika, associated with medieval Anglo-Saxon culture. It is a cross with perpendicular extensions, usually at 90° or close angles, radiating in the same direction. However – at least in modern heraldry texts, such as Friar and Woodcock & Robinson (see § Bibliography) – the fylfot differs somewhat from the archetypal form of the swastika: always upright and typically with truncated limbs, as shown in the figure at right.
The most commonly cited etymology for the word is that it comes from a belief, common among 19th-century antiquarians but based only on a dubious reading of the British Library's Lansdowne manuscript 874, that the word referred to the device – a swastika – shown in the main part of the image on of a stained-glass memorial window to Thomas Froxmere in the parish church of Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire. Subsequent analysis of the manuscript by lexicographer Henry Bradley explained that the word was an instruction to the painter to fill empty space at the foot. This etymology is often cited in modern dictionaries (such as the Oxford English Dictionary, the Collins English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online).
Walter William Skeat's 1882 A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language defined the fylfot as "a peculiarly formed cross" and derived it from Old English:
The word simply means 'four-footed.' The A.S. feówer, four, when used in composition, took the curious form fyðer or fiðer, easily contracted to fyr-, and corrupted to fyl-.
The second edition of Skeat's An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, completed in 1883, included an expanded etymology for fylfot which derived the word from Old English: *fyðer-fóte, lit. 'four-footed'. His definition was "a peculiarly formed cross, each arm being bent at right angles, always in the same direction" and continued that the figure was "Also called a rebated cross". After citing Frederick William Fairholt's Dictionary of Terms in Art and Charles Boutell's Heraldry, Skeat wrote of fylfot's etymology that it was:
Supposed to be (as is probable) a corruption of A. S. fíer-fóte, variant of fyðer-fóte, four-footed, in allusion to its shape The change from r to l is common, Cf. Swed. fyrfotad, four-footed. The A. S. fyðer-, i. e. 'four,' is only found in compounds; the usual form is feówer; cf. Goth. fidwor.
In the fourth edition, completed in 1909, Skeat accepted Bradley's 1897 etymology, replacing the mention of the rebated cross and the Anglo-Saxon etymology with:
Also called a gammadion. ... Modern; and due to a mistake. MS. Lansdowne 874, at leaf 190, has fylfot, meaning a space in a painted window, at the bottom, that fills the foot. This was erroneously connected (in 1842) with the 'gammadion,' as the cross was rightly named.
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Fylfot
The fylfot or fylfot cross (/ˈfɪlfɒt/ FILL-fot) and its mirror image, the gammadion, are types of truncated swastika, associated with medieval Anglo-Saxon culture. It is a cross with perpendicular extensions, usually at 90° or close angles, radiating in the same direction. However – at least in modern heraldry texts, such as Friar and Woodcock & Robinson (see § Bibliography) – the fylfot differs somewhat from the archetypal form of the swastika: always upright and typically with truncated limbs, as shown in the figure at right.
The most commonly cited etymology for the word is that it comes from a belief, common among 19th-century antiquarians but based only on a dubious reading of the British Library's Lansdowne manuscript 874, that the word referred to the device – a swastika – shown in the main part of the image on of a stained-glass memorial window to Thomas Froxmere in the parish church of Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire. Subsequent analysis of the manuscript by lexicographer Henry Bradley explained that the word was an instruction to the painter to fill empty space at the foot. This etymology is often cited in modern dictionaries (such as the Oxford English Dictionary, the Collins English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster Online).
Walter William Skeat's 1882 A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language defined the fylfot as "a peculiarly formed cross" and derived it from Old English:
The word simply means 'four-footed.' The A.S. feówer, four, when used in composition, took the curious form fyðer or fiðer, easily contracted to fyr-, and corrupted to fyl-.
The second edition of Skeat's An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, completed in 1883, included an expanded etymology for fylfot which derived the word from Old English: *fyðer-fóte, lit. 'four-footed'. His definition was "a peculiarly formed cross, each arm being bent at right angles, always in the same direction" and continued that the figure was "Also called a rebated cross". After citing Frederick William Fairholt's Dictionary of Terms in Art and Charles Boutell's Heraldry, Skeat wrote of fylfot's etymology that it was:
Supposed to be (as is probable) a corruption of A. S. fíer-fóte, variant of fyðer-fóte, four-footed, in allusion to its shape The change from r to l is common, Cf. Swed. fyrfotad, four-footed. The A. S. fyðer-, i. e. 'four,' is only found in compounds; the usual form is feówer; cf. Goth. fidwor.
In the fourth edition, completed in 1909, Skeat accepted Bradley's 1897 etymology, replacing the mention of the rebated cross and the Anglo-Saxon etymology with:
Also called a gammadion. ... Modern; and due to a mistake. MS. Lansdowne 874, at leaf 190, has fylfot, meaning a space in a painted window, at the bottom, that fills the foot. This was erroneously connected (in 1842) with the 'gammadion,' as the cross was rightly named.