Shropshire's Punning Heraldry - Praers

 Praers

Prayers

Arms: Gules, a scythe Argent.

The arms of Praers.

There is an historic heraldic pun (known as a canting coat of arms) in the bearings of the Praers family. The visual pun relies on medieval French and Old English vocabulary, playing on the meaning of the surname and heraldic wordplay. The surname Praers (also spelled Praerys or Pryeres) derives from the Anglo-Norman French word praer or praerie, meaning a meadow or pasture (the root of the modern English word prairie). The scythe is the primary agricultural tool used historically for mowing meadows and harvesting grass. By choosing a scythe as their knightly symbol, the Praers family created a delicate allusion to their own name. The coat of arms visually represents the action historically associated with their name's literal meaning: a tool to mow the meadows.