Fess
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- FESS is also an acronym for functional endoscopic sinus surgery, and for Fire Emblem Sanctuary of Strategy.
In heraldry, a fess is a charge on a coat of arms that takes the form of a band running horizontally and centrally across the shield. Writers disagree in how much of the shield's surface is to be covered by the fess, ranging from one-fifth to one-third. The former is more likely if the fess is uncharged, that is, if it does not have other charges placed on it. If charged, the fess is typically wider.
A mural fess can be seen in the arms of Suzanne Elizabeth Altvater.[1]
A fess when couped ("cut off" at either end, and so not reaching the sides of the shield) can be called humetty, but this term cannot be used interchangeably with "couped," being restricted to some charges, as for example the fess and the cross. A "pall couped", for example, is called a shakefork or pairle.
Though the bar is sometimes termed a diminutive of the fess, this is not necessarily true, as the bar may be no narrower than the fess. In British heraldry two fesses cannot appear on a field, two fess-like charges being then termed bars.
The "fasce" in the colonial arms of Djidjelli, Algeria is blazoned as "tombant à dextre".
A fess the middle third metamorphosed into a chevron can be seen in the arms of the 364th Regiment of the United States Army.[2]
The fess is one of the ordinaries in heraldry, along with the chief, bend, chevron and pale. There are several other ordinaries and sub-ordinaries.
| The Blazon Series |
|---|
| Charge • Divisions • Field • Lines • Ordinary • Tincture Bend • Canton • Chevron • Chief • Cross • Fess • Flaunch • Pall • Pale • Saltire |
