FLAG

a piece of cloth, bunting, or similar material displaying the insignia of a community, an armed force, an office, or an individual. A flag is usually, but not always, oblong and is attached by one edge to a staff or halyard. The part nearest the staff is called the hoist; the outer part is called the fly. A flag's length (also called the fly) usually exceeds its width (hoist). Flags of various forms and purpose are known as colours, standards, banners, ensigns, pendants (or pennants), pennons, guidons, and burgees. Originally used mainly in warfare, flags were, and to some extent remain, insignia of leadership, serving for the identification of friend or foe and as rallying points. They are now also extensively employed for signaling, for decoration, and for display. Because the usefulness of a flag for purposes of identification depends on its blowing out freely in the wind, the material that is preferred is usually light and bears a device or pattern identical on both sides. Wording therefore tends to be excluded, and the simpler patterns are favoured. Any colours or devices may be used, but European usage normally follows the practice of heraldry in discouraging the juxtaposition of metal and metal (i.e., of yellow and white) or of colour and colour without metal interposed. The flag of the Vatican City state constitutes an exception to this rule.