vexillology

I came across this delicious new word recently in a novel and it stayed with me because I was once a young vexillologist. 

Vexillology: the "scientific study of the history, symbolism and usage of flags or, by extension, any interest in flags in general". The word is a synthesis of the Latin word vexillum ("flag") and the Greek suffix-logia ("study").

I started collecting national flags when I was about eight and my collections, which I believe is my parents’ basement, grew to about 50 flags.  My dad made me some holders that we mounted to the wall and they were quite nicely displayed.  I had a t-shirt and poster of all the national flags on my wall.  I do not, however, have a picture of my collection.

While we’re on the subject of vexillology, let me share two flag related tidbits that I learned in the past few weeks. 

One, New Zealand will be voting next year on whether or not they will change their flag to something more representative of their culture.  Since their flag is pretty unoriginal, I would support it, though I don’t like the designs that look more like logos than flags.

Two, the Union Jack has directionality to it that I’d never noticed.  Flying flags upside down was a nautical distress signal that didn’t work very well for the Brits.