What is "goutte"

n. (context heraldiccharge English) A charge in the form of a teardrop shape, originally with wavy sides, but now often with straight sides.

A goutte is a droplet-shaped charge used in heraldry. Its name derives from the Old French for "droplet".

A goutte may be blazoned by its tincture, as in a goutte argent (literally "a silver droplet"). Alternatively, there are special names given to gouttes of various tinctures, as in a goutte d'eau (literally "a droplet of water").

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g. d'or

of gold

g. d'eau

of water

In medieval and Renaissance depictions of coats of arms, the goutte was drawn with wavy sides (as shown above). More modern depictions have smoothed the sides to make the droplets fatter and more symmetrical.

In their earliest uses, gouttes were strewn upon the field of a coat of arms, a design called goutty or gutty ( French gouttée). It was only much later that the goutte came to be used individually in heraldry as a charge in its own right.