banneret

plural bannerets · alternative bannerette

1. abbreviationclippinghistoricallawClipping of knight banneret, a knight entitled to subinfeudate his estate and to lead men in battle under his own banner.
2. A small banner.

   His armor and his horse were black; there was no device on his shield and no banneret on his spear.

   1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 6, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998

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   […] yet the scarfs and the bannerets about thee did manifoldly dissuade me from believing thee a vessel of too great a burthen.

   c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]

3. historicalgovernmentA proposed but unadopted senior commissioned rank of the Royal Air Force equivalent to group captain.

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   A list of new titles was manufactured as follows: Ensign, Lieutenant, Flight-Leader, Squadron-Leader, Reeve, Banneret, Fourth-Ardian, Third-Ardian, Second-Ardian, Ardian, Air Marshal. […O]ne may regret “Banneret”, which has a flavour and associations, more especially as the leader of a formation in the air went into battle flying a streamer which formed a rallying mark as did the banner of the knight for his vassals.

   1936, The Periodical, volumes 21-22, Oxford University Press, page 67

4. A civil officer in some Swiss cantons.