# British Flags: Their Early History, and Their Development at Sea With an Account of the Origin of the Flag as a National Device

Author: Perrin, William Gordon, 1874-; Vaughan, Herbert S. [Illustrator]

Genre: Category: History - British

Language: English

License: Public domain

Source: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46370

Amazon editions: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=British+Flags%3A+Their+Early+History%2C+and+Their+Development+at+Sea+With+an+Account+of+the+Perrin&tag=cyberlibrar00-20

## Summary

A flag may be defined as a piece of pliable material, attached at one end so as to move freely in the wind, serving as a sign or a decoration. This word is now common to the nations of north-western Europe[1], but it does not appear to have come into use in this particular meaning until the sixteenth century, and the etymology of it is obscure. Perhaps the most satisfactory of the derivations hitherto put forward is that of Professor Skeat, who derives it from the Middle English "flakken" to fly, one of a number of similar onomatopoeic words suggestive of the sound of something flapping in the wind. Its first appearance with a meaning coming within the above definition is as a specific te...

## Chapters

- [xviii. Also it is to be noted that](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/british-flags-their-early-history-and-their-development-at-sea-05d32f76/chapters/7/index.md)
- [Chapter IV](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/british-flags-their-early-history-and-their-development-at-sea-05d32f76/chapters/4/index.md)
- [Chapter I](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/british-flags-their-early-history-and-their-development-at-sea-05d32f76/chapters/1/index.md)
- [Chapter V](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/british-flags-their-early-history-and-their-development-at-sea-05d32f76/chapters/5/index.md)
- [Chapter II](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/british-flags-their-early-history-and-their-development-at-sea-05d32f76/chapters/2/index.md)
- [Chapter VII](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/british-flags-their-early-history-and-their-development-at-sea-05d32f76/chapters/8/index.md)
- [Chapter III](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/british-flags-their-early-history-and-their-development-at-sea-05d32f76/chapters/3/index.md)
- [Chapter VI](https://www.cyberlibrary.org/en/books/british-flags-their-early-history-and-their-development-at-sea-05d32f76/chapters/6/index.md)