Ordinary

An ordinary is a charge or bearing of simple form. The ordinaries, heraldically termed  honourable ordinaries, are generally considered to be nine* in number, as follows:

Chief, Fess, Cross, Pale, Saltire, Chevron, Bar, Bend and Bend Sinister.

Each has one or more diminutives and may be ornamentally treated in the manner of  Partition Lines.

The honourable ordinaries may have originated from the practice of painting or gilding the clamps or fastenings of the shield, which in turn became the bearer's mark of distinction.

*The Pall and Pile are treated as Subordinaries in this work although they are held to be ordinaries by  some authoritative writers, such as J.P. Brooke-Little. Most early writers had different concepts of the Ordinary, admitting several Subordinaries in their number.