purfle

English

Heraldic writer John Guillim says a lion adumbrated is reduced to its outer purfle or outline (here Or, on the azure background).

Alternative forms

• purflew
• purfyle (13th - 15th centuries)

Etymology

From Old French porfiler, from Latin pro- + filum (“thread”). Doublet of profile.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɜːfəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɝfəl/

Noun

purfle (plural purfles)

1. An ornamental border on clothing, furniture or a violin; beading, stringing.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xxvij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:

     the messager came for kyng Arthurs berd / For kyng Ryons had purfyled a mantel with kynges berdes / […] / wherfor he sente for his berd or els he wold entre in to his landes / […] / & neuer leue tyl he haue the hede and the berd / wel sayd Arthur thow hast said thy message / the whiche is the most vylaynous and lewdest message that euer man herd sente vnto a kynge / Also thow mayst see / my berd is ful yong yet to make a purfyl of hit

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. (heraldry) An ornamental border, edge, or line of a different tincture or material.
   • 1726, John Guillim, The banner display'd: or, An abridgment of Guillim [in his Display of heraldrie] by S. Kent, page 43:

     Adumbration (or Transparency) is a clear Exemption of the Substance of the Charge, so that there remaineth only the outward Strokes or Purfle of a Thing;

   • 1804, Alexander Nisbet, A system of heraldry, speculative and practical, page 117:

     Cross […] has its extremities ending in a flower of three leaves, or flower-de-luces, with a purfle, or line between them and the ends of the cross.

Verb

purfle (third-person singular simple present purfles, present participle purfling, simple past and past participle purfled)

1. (transitive, archaic) To decorate (wood, cloth etc.) with a purfle or ornamental border; to border.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xxvij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book I:

     And this was his message gretynge wel kynge Arthur in this manere wyse sayenge / that kynge Ryons had discomfyte and ouercome xj kynges / […] / they gaf hym their berdys clene flayne […] / wher for the messager came for kyng Arthurs berd / For kyng Ryons had purfyled a mantel with kynges berdes / and there lacked one place of the mantel

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 13, page 10:

     He had a faire companion of his way, / A goodly Lady, clad in ſcarlot red, / Purfled with gold and pearle of rich aſſay, […]

   • 1885, Sir Richard Burton, “The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad”, in The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, volume 1:

     It came to pass on a certain day, as he stood about the street leaning idly upon his crate, behold, there stood before him an honourable woman in a mantilla of Mosul silk, broidered with gold and bordered with brocade; her walking shoes were also purfled with gold and her hair floated in long plaits.

   • 2003, Tom Robbins, Villa Incognito:

     Remembering the exchange now, Dickie smiled that winning southern-boy smile. Then he went glum again. He thumped the purfled sound board.

2. (heraldry, transitive) To ornament with purfle.
   • 1815, John Wilkes, Encyclopaedia Londinensis, page 606:

     Crest; a dragon passant proper, wings elevated and purfled gules.

Translations

(archaic) decorate with ornamental border

• Russian: отде́лывать каймо́й (otdélyvatʹ kajmój)

(heraldry) ornament with purfle

Related terms

• purfling
• purl
• profile