Fleur-de-lis

Photo of author

Grammarist

The fleur-de-lis is a symbol of a lily with three petals, bound together at the base. Fleur-de-lis is taken directly from the French, it literally means flower of the lily. An alternate spelling is fleur-de-lys. According to Google’s Ngram Viewer both spellings are found with approximately the same frequency, though the Oxford English Dictionary prefers the fleur-de-lis spelling. The plural forms are fleurs-de-lis and fleurs-de-lys. The fleur-de-lis was a heraldic emblem, it is most closely associated with the French monarchy, and by extension, France. It is often found in various symbols and seals of local municipalities in the American state of Louisiana. The fleur-de-lis is so well known that it has been assigned a Unicode.

Examples

Same colors, different teams, the following alumnae have traded in their black and gold Southern Miss attire for cheerleading uniforms embellished with the Saints fleur-de-lis  logo. (The Hattiesburg American)

The scenery lacks creativity as it mostly consists of the same blue and yellow fleur-de-lis pattern splattered everywhere, but costume designer David Kay Mickelsen has created costumes — especially those of King Louis XIII and Queen Anne — that are detailed and stunning. (The Deseret News)

Inside the elaborately gothic Chapel of Saint-Hubert, with its vaulted ceilings and colorful stained-glass windows, we visited Leonardo’s tomb — surrounded by tiles inlaid with fleurs-de-lis and emblazoned only with his name in block letters and a stone plaque with his profile in bas-­relief. (The Washington Post)

And the very real danger for the PQ, which since its disastrous defeat in 2014 has seen itself inexorably drifting toward the realm of political irrelevancy, is that the blue and white, fleur-de-lys brand that had been a part of Quebec’s political landscape for 40 years may well eventually devolve into little more than white noise for the province’s electorate. (The Montreal Gazette)

Also included will be animated and hands-on workshops with historians, artists and performers. Students will also perform songs and short plays related to water history, conservation and the Fleur-De-Lys Arch. (The Times of Malta)