Bunting (decoration)

Description

Bunting are festive or patriotic decorations made of fabric, or of plastic, paper or cardboard in imitation of fabric. Typical forms of bunting are strings of colorful triangular flags, lengths of fabric in the colors gathered and draped into swags or pleated into fan shapes, draperies, and wide streamers. The colors are often those of national flags. Bunting decorations are used on streets and buildings at special occasions and political events.

The term bunting also refers to a collection of flags, and particularly those of a ship; the officer responsible for raising signals using flags is known as bunts, a term still used for a ship's communications officer. Bunting is also the fabric used to make flags.

History

Bunting textile was originally a specific type of lightweight worsted wool fabric generically known as tammy, manufactured from the turn of the 17th century, and used for making ribbons and flags, including signal flags for the Royal Navy. It may also be cotton. Amongst other properties that made the fabric suitable for ribbons and flags was its high glaze, achieved by a process including hot-pressing.

The origin of the word is uncertain, but bunt means colourful in German.

Gallery

|Image:2004 - 4th of July - Roche Harbor 019.jpg |4th of July decorations in Roche Harbor include Canadian and U.S. flags and red, white and blue bunting. |File:NSE Eridge-Edenbridge celebrations (1988) 14.JPG |NSE Eridge-Edenbridge celebrations (1988) with Red, White and Blue commemorating the Hundred Years of the Line. |File:Personalised bunting.webp |Example of personalised nursery bunting in the UK

Notes

References

References

1. "BUNTING definition in American English | Collins English Dictionary".
2. "BUNTING | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary".
3. "Dictionary.com | Meanings & Definitions of English Words".
4. "bunting noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com".
5. Flags, Parker. (March 15, 2014). "What Is Bunting?".
6. {{EB1911
7. "Bunting - Definition, Meaning & Synonyms | Vocabulary.com".
8. "The gradual change of spelling undergone by this name from 'estamet' to 'tammy' had by that date proceeded as far as 'tamett'. By 1633 it had become 'tammet'" {{harv. Kerridge. 1988
9. "Worsted tammies, white and coloured, broad and narrow, were made in Norwich and East Norfolk, seemingly from about 1594, certainly from 1605" {{harv. Kerridge. 1988
10. "One special form of tammy, called bunt or bunting, was sold for making flags" {{harv. Kerridge. 1988
11. "They were also highly glazed by hot-pressing and other means." {{harv. Kerridge. 1988
12. [[Oxford English Dictionary]] on CD-ROM, Oxford University Press, 2002.