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fylfot (FIL-fot) - n., a swastika.
Supposedly, anyway, when used as a decorative device, but this sense is only attested in a single, damaged c.1500 manuscript, and there it may refer to any sort of device used to fill the bottom (foot) of a design. The OED notes that "it is even possible that it may have been a mere nonce-word." Other potential etymologies were then devised by 19th century heraldry, which started using the word especially for a swastika rotating anticlockwise with outer arms shorter than the inner ones.
---L.
Supposedly, anyway, when used as a decorative device, but this sense is only attested in a single, damaged c.1500 manuscript, and there it may refer to any sort of device used to fill the bottom (foot) of a design. The OED notes that "it is even possible that it may have been a mere nonce-word." Other potential etymologies were then devised by 19th century heraldry, which started using the word especially for a swastika rotating anticlockwise with outer arms shorter than the inner ones.
---L.
