badelaire

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French badelaire, baudelaire, a corruption of earlier (14th century) baselard.

Noun

badelaire (plural badelaires)

(now chiefly historical) A short sword with a heavy, curved blade and S-shaped quillions. [from 17th c.]
- 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter I, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 12:
  I heard the ring of steel on stone, as if someone had struck one of the grave markers with a badelaire.
(heraldry) This sword used as a heraldic charge.

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