CLOURS, in heraldry. The colours generally used in heraldry are red, blue, black, green and purple, which the heralds call gules, azure, sable, vert or sionople, and purpure; tenne or tawny, and sanguine, are not so common: as to yellow and white, called or, and argent, they are metals, not colours.
The metals and colours are sometimes expressed in blazon by the names of precious stones, and sometimes by those of planets or stars. See BLAZONING.
Oenomaus is said to have first invented the distinction of colours, to distinguish the gundillæ of combatants of the Circensian games; the green for those who represented the earth, and blue for those who represented the sea.