The Collaborative International Dictionary
Gonfalon \Gon"fa*lon\, Gonfanon \Gon"fa*non\, n. [OE. gonfanoun, OF. gonfanon, F. gonfalon, the same word as F. confalon, name of a religious brotherhood, fr. OHG. gundfano war flag; gund war (used in comp., and akin to AS. g[=u][eth]) + fano cloth, flag; akin to E. vane; cf. AS. g[=u][eth]fana. See Vane, and cf. Confalon.]
The ensign or standard in use by certain princes or states, such as the medi[ae]val republics of Italy, and in more recent times by the pope.
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A name popularly given to any flag which hangs from a crosspiece or frame instead of from the staff or the mast itself.
Standards and gonfalons, 'twixt van and rear, Stream in the air.
--Milton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1590s, variant of Middle English gonfanon (c.1300), from Old French gonfanon "knight's pennon" (12c.), from Old High German guntfano "battle flag," from Proto-Germanic *gunthja- "war," from PIE *gwhen- "to strike, kill" (see bane) + *fano "banner" (compare Gothic fana "cloth"). Cognate with Old English guþfana, Old Norse gunnfani. Change of -n- to -l- by dissimilation.
Wiktionary
n. A standard or ensign, consisting of a pole with a crosspiece from which a banner is suspended, especially as used in church processions, but also for civic and military display.
Wikipedia
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The tip of a gonfalon from the 1839 Eglinton Tournament as held at Eglinton Castle in Scotland.]] The gonfalon, gonfanon, gonfalone (from the early Italian confalone) is a type of heraldic flag or banner, often pointed, swallow-tailed, or with several streamers, and suspended from a crossbar in an identical manner to the ancient Roman vexillum. It was first adopted by Italian medieval communes, and later, by local Guilds, Corporations and Districts. The difference between a gonfanon with long tails and a standard is that a gonfanon displays the device on the non-tailed area, and the standard displays badges down the whole length of the flag.
A gonfalon can include a badge or coat of arms, or ornamentations of fancy design. Today every Italian comune (municipality) has a gonfalon sporting its coat of arms. The gonfalon has long been used for ecclesiastical ceremonies and processions. The papal " ombrellino", a symbol of the pope, is often mistakenly called "gonfalone" by the Italians because the pope's ceremonial umbrella was often depicted on the banner.
Gonfalone was originally the name given to a neighbourhood meeting in medieval Florence, each neighbourhood having its own flag and coat of arms, leading to the word Gonfalone eventually becoming associated with the flag.
Gonfalons are also used in some university ceremonies, such as those at the University of Chicago, Rowan University, Rutgers University, Princeton University, University of Toronto and the University of St. Thomas.
A Gonfalon of State (Dutch: Rijksvaandel or Rijksbanier) is part of the Regalia of the Netherlands. The banner is made of silk and it has been painted with the souvereign's coat of arms as they were in the 19th. century. The Gonfalon of State is only used when a new king or queen is sworn in.
A picture of a gonfalon is itself a heraldic charge in the coat of arms of the Counts Palatine of Tübingen and their cadet branches.
- http://donna.hrynkiw.net/sca/flags/gonfanon.html↩
- Alumni Procession↩
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- Presidential Inauguration: Pageantry and Color↩
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- attested since the 14th century; it has been suggested that the gonfalon in the Tübingen coat of arms originates as a re-interpretation of the tripod symbol found on ancient coins. Hildebrecht Hommel: Antike Spuren im Tübinger Wappen. Zur Frage der Verwertung und Umdeutung numismatischer Motive. Vorgelegt am 13. Juni 1981. Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse. Bericht Jg. 1981, 9.↩
Usage examples of "gonfalon".
In amongst the sculpted grotesqueries and outcroppings fluttered the gonfalons, ensigns, and bannerets of a hundred dozen sects and cults, but one would have to be a hagiologist to be able to identify what each represented.
I took the precaution of making certain from time to time, as I trod the crooked streets that straggled down the cliff between cave-houses excavated from the rock and swallow-houses jutting out from it, that I could still see the familiar shape of the bartizan, with its barricaded gate and black gonfalon.
Flanked by standard-bearers, a trumpeter, the Dainnan, the Legions of Eldaraigne and battalions from the armies of every country in Erith with their banners and gonfalons, the gay pennons unfolding their points along the breeze, this sovereign of a lost Realm looked toward the wide lands opening out from the Landbridge and advanced steadily into Namarre.
There was even a gonfalon of Old Kzin, and some of the artificial lights shone from cressets of antique appearance.
Over the army floated a gonfalon bearing a black crab on the white fabric.
The headquarters was a soaring megacomplex whose central tower cluster had been built to suggest the white gonfalons, or ensigns, of a holy crusade hanging from high crosspieces.
To remedy this evil, the leaders of the Arts' companies ordered that every Signory at the time of entering upon the duties of office should appoint a gonfalonier of Justice, chosen from the people, and place a thousand armed men at his disposal divided into twenty companies of fifty men each, and that he, with his gonfalon or banner and his forces, should be ready to enforce the execution of the laws whenever called upon, either by the Signors themselves or the Capitano.