Sedant

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing a beast in heraldry shown sitting on its haunches with its forelegs upright, a variant spelling of sejant
2. Used of a heraldic animal depicted in a seated posture, resting on its hindquarters with the forepaws raised
3. Referring to a charged animal in a coat of arms that is portrayed seated, as in the heraldic sitting position

Etymology: "Sedant" is a heraldic term from Anglo-French blazon, the specialized language of heraldic description. It comes from the Old French "seant," the present participle of "seoir," meaning "to sit," which descends from Latin "sedere," the same root behind "sedentary," "session," and "sediment." In a coat of arms, a lion or dog shown sitting back on its haunches with its forelegs upright is described as sejant, while "sedant" is the variant form used when the animal is shown in a seated posture with the forepaws raised, a distinction heraldists keep sharp. The forms "sejant" and "sedant" reflect the spelling variation found in English heraldry, where blazon was written in Anglo-Norman French for centuries. English heralds adopted these terms with their French spellings intact, so the vocabulary of a Tudor herald's roll and a modern armorial description still shares the same Latinate ancestry. The word is therefore a technical borrowing rather than a native English term, and its meaning has stayed fixed to the language of coats of arms since it entered use.