Honi soit qui mal y pense

The motto appears on a representation of the garter, surrounding the Shield of the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom used outside Scotland.
The motto appears in a royal coat of arms of the 17th century on the ceiling of Bath Abbey.
Hand fan of Queen Victoria with motto
Motto on cannon at Fort Denison, Sydney

Honi soit qui mal y pense (UK: /ˌɒni ˌswɑː kiː ˌmæl i ˈpɒ̃s/, US: /- ˌmɑːl -/, French: [ɔni swa ki mal i pɑ̃s]) is a maxim in the Anglo-Norman language, a dialect of Old Norman French spoken by the medieval ruling class in England, meaning "shamed be whoever thinks ill of it", usually translated as "shame on anyone who thinks evil of it".[1] It is the motto of the British chivalric Order of the Garter, the highest of all British knighthoods, except in Scotland.[2]

  1. ^ "Honi soit qui mal y pense - French expressions analyzed and explained". About Education. About.com. Archived from the original on 22 July 2015. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  2. ^ It is sometimes translated with masculine gendering: as in "May he be shamed who thinks badly of it" ("honi soit qui mal y pense, n". OED Online. Oxford University Press. December 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2015.) However, although grammatically honi (in today's French honni) is masculine, conventionally masculine was the default gender to use during the Anglo-Norman period, when talking about someone whose gender is unknown or unspecified, so that technically females are not excluded from the application of the phrase. Honni and the feminine form honnie sound exactly the same; likewise tel (feminine, telle) below.