Emoji dictionary

⚜️ Fleur-de-lis emoji

[ flur-dl-ee ih-moh-jee ]

What is the ⚜ Fleur-de-lis emoji?

The Fleur-de-lis emoji ⚜ depicts a fleur-de-lis, an emblem resembling an iris flower and historically associated with France.

The fleur-de-lis, including in its emoji form as ⚜, is especially used in connection to regions known for their French heritage, like New Orleans or Quebec, as a symbol of local pride. It’s used frequently during Mardi Gras, which falls on February 16 in 2021.

Fleur-de-lis emoji ⚜ is also sometimes used to signify the Boy Scouts as well as to flair to social media posts. 

Related words

🇫🇷 Flag For France emoji, ✝️ Latin cross emoji, 🥐 Croissant emoji

Where does ⚜️ Fleur-de-lis emoji come from?

Here’s your quick French history lesson for the day. Legend has it that the biblical Eve cried when she was cast out of Eden, and from those tears grew lilies. Ages later, one of those lilies was said to be gifted by the Virgin Mary to Clovis, king of the Franks, upon his baptism. This made the lily both a symbol of French royalty and a symbol of the French crown’s link to the Roman Catholic church (i.e., the divine right to govern).

It helps that the lily also looks sort of like a cross and has three petals, evoking the Christian concept of Holy Trinity. The symbol continued to be used throughout French history, well into the country’s colonial phase. Today it can still be seen in use by several former French colonial areas.

And here’s your quick French language lesson for the day. Fleur-de-lis literally translates to “flower of the lily.” And the lily, while botanically distinct from the iris, has been historically used as a term for the fleur-de-lis, especially as the symbol of France.

The fleur-de-lis was widespread and culturally significant enough that it was proposed to the Unicode Consortium in 2003. In 2005, the symbol was included as part of Unicode’s 4.1 release, where it was classified under “Miscellaneous Symbols.” In 2015, it was also part of their Emoji 1.0 set alongside other symbols like Check Mark Button ✅, Japanese Symbol for Beginner 🔰, and Recycling Symbol ♻️ emoji.

Most major platforms feature a gold Fleur-de-lis emoji ⚜. Twitter’s version is purple.

Examples of ⚜️ Fleur-de-lis emoji

Passionate. Resilient. Unparalleled. There's only one New Orleans. ⚜️ #WontBowDown
@PelicansNBA, November 13, 2020
We’ll be pulling in to #exeter this Saturday for our favourite cheesy event @cheesefestuk 🧀 See you there for our authentic, Québec #poutine ⚜💙🇨🇦
@bccanteen, March 14, 2018

Who uses ⚜️ Fleur-de-lis emoji?

Because the symbol was so continuously used throughout French history, the fleur-de-lis was adopted by certain French colonial areas, where it continues to be used today. For example, the provincial flag of Quebec and the flag of the city of New Orleans both feature fleurs-de-lis as an homage to their French history. The New Orleans Saints football team also use the fleur-de-lis as their logo. The symbol also makes its appearance during Mardi Gras.

The fleur-de-lis itself is also the main feature of the World Crest, used by the World Organization of the Scout Movement. The Boy Scouts of America (a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement) took inspiration from the (true) north symbol on maps and considers its three petals to represent the three tenets of the Scout Promise. They also claim that at the earliest Scouting camp, in the UK in 1907, the organization’s founder issued copper fleur-de-lis badges to all participants. 

The Fleur-de-lis emoji⚜ is largely used in the US in reference to New Orleans, and in Canada in reference to Quebec. It’s usually a throwback to the regions’ French roots and local pride.

Just be aware: in Quebec in particular, that regional pride is often linked to a long-standing desire to separate from Canada. That means the Fleur-de-lis emoji ⚜ is also used by Canadian conservatives who advocate for separation.

Naturally, though, the Fleur-de-lis emoji ⚜ is big for Quebec and NOLA-area sports fans.

You’ll also see the Fleur-de-lis emoji ⚜ on posts linked to other Francophone countries, like Belgium and, of course, France.

Sometimes, the Fleur-de-lis emoji ⚜ is used to add a little extra design or flair to a caption, because let’s face it, if there’s one emoji that screams “fabulous,” it’s ⚜. That, or maybe jazz hands 🤗.

 

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Note

This is not meant to be a formal definition of ⚜️ Fleur-de-lis emoji like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of ⚜️ Fleur-de-lis emoji that will help our users expand their word mastery.

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