(urth) Tzadkiel's ship

[Jeff Wilson]

Mark Millman wrote:
> Dear Mr. Wilson:

>> If "ship" can come to include "rockets and four
>> masters and magical space time machines that
>> traffic with other universes" over millenia, why
>> must "volant" remain fixed in stone? If you insist
>> on strictly historical heraldry, "a ship volant" is
>> as meaningless a device as "a serpent rampant";
>> you can't draw it because historical ships have
>> no wings any more than historical serpents had
>> feet.
> 
> Not so; a ship volant would show no waterline, while a ship natant would.

Pimsley says "natant" means swimming to the right, and applies to fish.

Calling floating "natant" seems as figurative as sailing being called 
"volant".

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
< http://www.io.com/~jwilson >