A band or strip of material placed opposite or across from another band; often used in heraldry or textiles to create contrasting patterns.
From counter- + band (a strip or stripe, from Old French bande). This is primarily a heraldic and textile term, relatively archaic.
In medieval heraldry, a counterband created visual complexity—it was an opposing stripe that complicated identification from a distance, which heraldic experts had to memorize, making medieval coat-of-arms truly a visual language as complex as any written text.
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