Cleché

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In heraldry, cleché, or clechée, is usually understood of an ordinary open to the light, or pierced through with another inner one of the same figure; e.g. when a cross appears as if charged with another cross of the same color with the field; or as if the field appeared through the apertures thereof.

But Colombière, and some other writers, will have this piercing to be only a circumstance of the cross cleché, and call it by the name vuid, voided. The thing that denominates it cleché, is its spreading from the center towards the extremities, which are very wide, and end in an angle in the middle, as in the figure.

The word is French, supposed to be formed from clef, key; the ends of the cross being thought to bear some resemblances to the bowls of ancient keys.

This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.