From Middle English fesse, from Old French fesse, an alteration of faisse, from Latin fascia. Cognate with fajita, fascia, and fascism.
Meanings
A horizontal band across the middle of the shield.
The space where the arms of Wolsey used to be is being repainted with his own newly granted arms: azure, on a fess between three lions rampant or, a rose gules, barbed vert, between two Cornish choughs proper. 2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 420:
Lord Robert Walsingham de Vere St. Simon, second son of the Duke of Balmoral—Hum! Arms: Azure, three caltrops in chief over a fess sable. 1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, Norton, published 2005, page 294:
Y'll be fess enough, my poppet, when th'st know!" 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, volume 1, London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., page 32: