PARTHIA, a country of Asia, formerly so called, situated almost in the middle of the modern Persia.
PARTI, PARTIE, PARTY, or PARTED, in heraldry, is applied to a shield or escutcheon, denoting it divided or marked out into partitions.
Parti per pale is when the shield is divided perpendicularly into two halves, by a cut in the middle from top to bottom. See Plate CXXXIV. fig. 11.
Parti per fess is when the cut is across the middle, from side to side.
Parti per bend dexter, is when the cut comes from the upper corner of the shield, on the right hand, and descends athwart to the opposite lower corner.
Parti per bend sinister, is when the cut, coming from the upper left corner, descends across to the opposite lower one.
From these four partitions have proceeded an infinite number of others, of various and extravagant forms.