A goutte is a droplet-shaped
charge
Charge or charged may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Charge, Zero Emissions/Maximum Speed'', a 2011 documentary
Music
* ''Charge'' (David Ford album)
* ''Charge'' (Machel Montano album)
* '' Charge!!'', an album by The Aqu ...
used in
heraldry
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, Imperial, royal and noble ranks, rank and genealo ...
. Its name derives from the
for "droplet".
A goutte may be blazoned by its tincture (heraldry)">tincture
A tincture is typically an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol (ethyl alcohol). Solvent concentrations of 25–60% are common, but may run as high as 90%.Groot Handboek Geneeskrachtige Planten by Geert Verhelst In chemistr ...
, as in a ''goutte argent'' (literally "a silver droplet"). Alternatively, there are special names given to gouttes of various tinctures, as in a ''goutte d'eau'' (literally "a droplet of water").
In some medieval and Renaissance depictions of coat of arms, coats of arms, the goutte was drawn with wavy sides (as shown above). More modern depictions have smoothed the sides to make the droplets fatter and more symmetrical - as also seen in the arms on the personal seal used from 1353 by
: strewn upon the field of a coat of arms. Rather than ''semé de gouttes'', this is termed goutty, gutté, or gutty (). It was only much later that the goutte came to be used individually in heraldry as a charge in its own right.