COLOUR, in Heraldry. The colours generally used in heraldry are, red, blue, black, green, and purple; which the heralds call gules, azure, sable, vert or sinople, and purpure; tenné 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.
Onomaus is said first to have invented the distinctions of colours, to distinguish the gundillæ of combatants at the Circensian games; the green for those who represented the earth, and blue for those who represented the sea.