In heraldry, a design pattern where rows of small squares alternate in color between two tinctures, arranged in opposite fashion to another heraldic pattern.
From counter- (opposite) + compony (heraldic term for a border of small squares). Compony comes from Old French componé, meaning 'composed of small pieces or squares.'
Heraldry's countercompony pattern is mathematically elegant—medieval heralds used it to show opposition or reversal, and the same alternating square pattern appears in modern computer graphics and tessellations.
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