Bandiera

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A piece of fabric with distinctive colors and symbols, used as a national or organizational emblem
2. a distinguishing mark or symbol representing a group or cause
3. a display of allegiance often shown during ceremonies or events

Etymology: Italian "bandiera" means "flag," and it descends from the Germanic word for a banner or strip of cloth that Italian absorbed during the medieval period. The most likely source is Old Italian "bandiera," related to "banda" (a strip, band, or side, as in a band of cloth), which itself came into Italian from a Germanic root shared with English "band." The sense of a flag as a cloth marker borne on a pole grew naturally out of that idea of a strip of fabric. The word spread widely across the Romance languages and beyond, often by way of Italian military and maritime vocabulary, where flags signaled identity and allegiance on battlefields and at sea. English "bandit" follows a parallel path from the same Italian family of words, though its meaning moved in a very different direction. Speakers of Italian still use "bandiera" in everyday speech for the national flag and for other flags, so the term has changed little in core meaning across the centuries.

Synonyms: flag, banner, standard