Nowy Cross

The heraldic term for a partition line or charge in which one or more curves interrupt a normally straight line (or lines), is termed nowy. (And now you knowy.)

Like many heraldic terms, 'nowy' is from a French word, noué, which in turn is from the Latin nodatus, meaning 'knotted', as in the knot of a tree. (The word 'node' has the same Latin root.)

In addition to the bulge seen in the cross on this page, a nowy is also the term for a sine wave, either concave or convex.

Another name for this convex shape is "Flaunch", and when the curve is concave it may be called (confusingly similar) Flanch.