in pride

English

The arms of Nordhofen include a peacock in pride.

Phrase

in pride

1. (heraldry, chiefly of a peacock) With its tail feathers spread.
   • 1841, Irvin Eller, The History of Belvoir Castle: From the Norman Conquest to the Nineteenth Century, page 301:

     Over the fire-place on the right hand, there is a group of heathen celestials: - Jupiter and Juno, in a reclining posture, with their mythological insignia (the eagle holding the thunderbolts, and the peacock in his pride); […]

   • 1861, All the Year Round, page 281:

     I remember, too, seeing the Peacock in pride above the arms of the late Sir Matthew Tierney, the physician, […]

   • 1894, Henry Gough, James Parker, A Glossary of Terms Used in Heraldry, page 448:

     Argent, three peacocks in pride proper.

   • 1982, William Brunsdon Yapp, Birds in Medieval Manuscripts, page 22:

     A Psalter, B.L. MC. Arundel 157, of circa 1200, has a fairly good bird in its pride in the initial D of Psalm 98 […] (f.82v). This is not one of the regularly illustrated psalms, and the only possible symbolism, that the peacock represents Christ, seems far-fetched.

   • 1983, Cynthia Mortimore, in a letter to (and published in) Country Life, volume 173, page 582:

     Our Turkey Lectern is 20th-century, but the family arms, with the turkey crest, occur in 18th-century glass and in the carvings above 17th- and 18th- century tombs. I find it interesting that these two earlier birds show great resemblance to your 18th century picture of the North American wild turkey. Though depicted "in its pride”, the body has the elongated shape of the present-day pheasant. Can it be that at that time the domestic turkey was still similar to the North American wild turkey?

   • 1987, Sarah Ridge Rockenfield, Boone's:

     Above the shield and helmet is the Crest which is described as : "A peacock in pride ar." A translation of the Crest description is : "A silver peacock in her pride." Family mottos are believed to have originated as battle cries in medieval times  ...

   • 1993, James Fairbairn, Fairbairn's Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, Genealogical Publishing Com, →ISBN, page 438:

     (1) A peacock in his pride arg. (for Pelham).

   • 2013, Debra Hassig, The Mark of the Beast: The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature, Routledge, →ISBN, page 61:

     The careful and detailed rendering of the "eyes" of the peacock's tail in many of the bestiaries may be an artistic attempt to create a pictorial equivalent of the text. The peacock in Bodley 764 is shown in its pride (figure C, p. xxiv).

Usage notes

• Also found with pronouns (a peacock in his pride, peacocks in their pride, even a peacock in her pride can be found, see citations above).

References

• 1904, Charles Boutell, English Heraldry, page 81: 'A Peacock having its tail expanded is "in its pride," and this same expression is applicable to any other bird when in the same attitude."