Re: Village of Whitesboro, NY
Posted: 13 Jan 2016, 15:27
Personally, I'd be deliriously happy if the use of the word "seal" were confined not only to Arthur's 1st and 2nd definitions but to all three.
The practice in the US of using seal designs in lieu of coats of arms/badges has caused not only non-armorial seals to be called "coats of arms" (in some states by legislative enactment, making the pictorial design on a seal, minus the encircling words, the de jure coat of arms of the state), but also causes people to refer to what actually are coats of arms as seals, causes colleges and universities to abandon the use of their arms except for sealing documents, because they've read somewhere that the use of the seal should be restricted, and on and on. The Wikipedia article on the U.S. great seal used to state that the United States has no coat of arms, just a seal, even though the 1782 Congressional enactment adopting the seal, and the explanation of the design contained in the Congressional journals, both make clear that the design is the "arms," "armorial atchievement [sic]," etc., of the United States.
The practice in the US of using seal designs in lieu of coats of arms/badges has caused not only non-armorial seals to be called "coats of arms" (in some states by legislative enactment, making the pictorial design on a seal, minus the encircling words, the de jure coat of arms of the state), but also causes people to refer to what actually are coats of arms as seals, causes colleges and universities to abandon the use of their arms except for sealing documents, because they've read somewhere that the use of the seal should be restricted, and on and on. The Wikipedia article on the U.S. great seal used to state that the United States has no coat of arms, just a seal, even though the 1782 Congressional enactment adopting the seal, and the explanation of the design contained in the Congressional journals, both make clear that the design is the "arms," "armorial atchievement [sic]," etc., of the United States.