LAMB (a word

See also:

• COMMON

common to

See also:

• TEUTONIC
• TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES

Teutonic

See also:

• LANGUAGES

languages; cf. Ger. Lamm)  , the young of sheep . The Paschal Lamb or Agnus Dei is used as a symbol of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (John i . 29), and " lamb," like " flock," is often used figuratively of the members of a Christian church or community, with an allusion to Jesus' charge to Peter (John xxi . 15) . The " lamb and flag " is an heraldic emblem, the dexter fore-leg of the lamb supporting a staff bearing a banner charged with the St George's cross . This was one of the crests of the Knights Templars, used on seals as early as 1241; it was adopted as a badge or crest by the Middle Temple, the Inner Temple using another crest of the Templars, the winged horse or Pegasus . The old Tangier regiment, now the Queen's Royal West Surrey Regiment, bore a Paschal Lamb as its badge . From their colonel, Percy Kirke (q.v.), they were known as Kirke's Lambs . The exaggerated reputation of the regiment for brutality, both in Tangier and in England after Sedgmoor, lent irony to the nickname .