Though the flag, as we know it, has been around since the Middle Ages, earlier examples of vexilloids or flag-like banners and standards have existed since at least the 6th century BC.
And we have grown accustomed to using them for everything: from distinguishing differing parts of an army to the flow of traffic on a highway and from marking countries on a map to marking the buried power lines around a building.
Essentially, a flag, by definition, is nothing more than a piece of cloth that is designed to convey a message, and this message can be used to identify something, give direction, or as a symbol.
While the word was, apparently, first recorded in English, via the mention of “streamers, standards, and flags” listed in the Household Books of John (Howard) Duke of Norfolk 1481-1490, and has a rather unknown origin, it has many Germanic relatives, such as the German flagge, the Dutch vlag, and the Swedish flagg, which appeared at around the same time. That being said, there is somewhat of a consensus that its use as a noun is derived from its use as a verb, with the meaning of ‘flapping about loosely’ being used a few decades previously (the late 14th century).
Aside from national flags, with Denmark having the oldest continually used flag (since 1478) and the flag of the Netherlands being the oldest tricolour, flags have a multitude of specific uses aside from what has already been mentioned. For example, flags are used for messaging on railways, to indicate swimming conditions on a beach, or to properly identify and communicate between naval vessels: military, commercial, and scientific.
In a less practical, but more symbolic sense, flags can represent political and religious groups, as with the Vatican flag or the communist/socialist red flag, international and non-national organisations, such as the International Red Cross, the UN, or the Olympics, and there are even flags for different linguistic movements, such as a hybrid of the American flag and the Union Jack to denote the English language.
And there is also the white flag, to express a wish for parley with the enemy, with its first usage recorded back in 1582, in the English translation of the first book of the History of the discovery and conquest of India by the Portuguese, where the Portuguese historian Fernão Lopes de Castanheda writes: “Then the enemies held up a flag. This flag was a sign and request of peace.”
With so many flags to associate with and wave, you may need a bigger pole.
