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Baton sinister is a Charge used in Heraldry . HERALDIC CHARGE It is a diminutive of the Bend Sinister and constitutes a narrow strip that runs from the upper right to the lower left of a Coat Of Arms . It has been traditionally used as an indicator of an illegitimate birth in the family line. Sinister, in this case, does not have a negative connotation, it is merely a directional indicator. The baton sinister can be seen in the arms of the Duke Of Grafton who is a descendant of an illegitimate son of King Charles II Of England . Today, the College Of Arms in England uses a bordure wavy to mark an armiger as illegitimate. The Court Of The Lord Lyon in Scotland uses a bordure gobony to denote the same. BAR SINISTER In French blazon a bend sinister is called a ''barre''. Sir Walter Scott is credited with giving literature the Macaronic phrase bar sinister, which has become a Metonym ic term for bastardy. In English blazon a ''bar'' is a horizontal stripe, symmetric with respect to ''sinister'' and ''dexter''. (''Bar'' and ''barre'' are pronounced alike.) The term ''bar sinister'' may also refer to a symbol of prohibition commonly seen in signs, consisting of a red diagonal within a red circle, though its orientation is not usually significant. These include the common "No Smoking" signs. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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