regardant

Regardant is a French present participle of the verb regarder, meaning "looking" or "watching." It can function as an adjective to describe someone or something that is looking, for example, un homme regardant par la fenêtre (a man looking out of the window). As a participle, regardant forms various verbal phrases indicating ongoing or descriptive action in French.

In heraldry, regardant is a technical term used to describe the orientation of animals or figures on coats of arms. When a creature's head is turned to face the viewer, it is described as regardant. This posture is commonly noted in blazons alongside other postures such as rampant or passant, and the term is often kept in its original French form in English-language heraldic writing.

Outside heraldry, regardant ordinarily appears in French to mean simply "looking" and is not frequently anglicized in standard English prose. In translations of French literature and art-historical texts, regardant is sometimes retained to convey a specific gaze or artistic direction that may be lost in a plain translation.

In sum, regardant has a straightforward French origin as the present participle of regarder and is most distinctively used in heraldry to indicate a figure whose head faces the viewer. Its usage in general English contexts is rare and typically confined to specialized vocabulary or quotations from French sources.