saltire

English

WOTD – 30 November 2016

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saltire

Wikipedia

Saint Patrick's Cross, a red saltire (sense 1) on a white background

From Middle French saultoir (“stile, saltire”) (compare French sautoir (“saltire”)), from sauter (“to jump, to leap”) + -oir (“suffix forming objects”), from Latin saltāre (“to dance, to jump”) + -orium, -oria.

saltire (plural saltires)

(heraldry) An ordinary (geometric design) in the shape of an X. It usually occupies the entire field in which it is placed.
The Saint Andrew's cross, the flag of Scotland.
- 2011 October 1, Tom Fordyce, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16 – 12 Scotland”, in BBC Sport‎, archived from the original on 26 September 2016:
  But the World Cup winning veteran's left boot was awry again, the attempt sliced horribly wide of the left upright, and the saltires were waving aloft again a moment later when a long pass in the England midfield was picked off to almost offer up a breakaway try.
- 2014 September 16, Ian Jack, “Is this the end of Britishness?”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 18 April 2016:
  It was early August. In the Borders, there were few signs yet of a campaign that could take Scotland out of the United Kingdom. A large Y-E-S hung in separate letters from a tree on the road from Coldstream to Kelso. There wasn't a N-O to match it, but Kelso town hall flew both the saltire and the union jack.
The Saint Patrick's Cross, the pre 1922 flag of Ireland.

ordinary in the shape of a cross

Saint Andrew's cross — see Saint Andrew's cross

saltire f (plural saltiri)

Declension of saltire