fan

en-verb

fan (third-person singular simple present fans, present participle fanning, simple past and past participle fanned)

fans (present singular third-person)
fanning (participle present)
fanned (participle past)
fanned (past)

Inherited from Middle English fan, inherited from Old English fann (“a winnowing, fan”), derived from Latin vannus (“fan for winnowing grain”), derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).
cognates
*Latin ventus (“wind”)
*Dutch wan (“winnowing basket”)
*German Wanne (“winnowing basket”)
*Swedish vanna (“a fan for winnowing”)
*Old English windwian (“to fan, winnow”).
More at winnow.

der+

Audio (Southern England)

thumbing

to firing a revolver by holding trigger and hitting hammer

To fan a single action revolver, hold down the trigger and strike the hammer repeatedly with a free hand.

2011, Hans-Christoan Vortisch, GURPS Tactical Shooting, page 14:

(firearms, transitive) To perform a maneuver that involves flicking the top rear of an old-style gun.


timber

en-noun

timber (countable and uncountable, plural timbers)

From Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-West Germanic *timr, from Proto-Germanic *timrą, from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“build, house”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dṓm).
Cognates include Dutch timmer, Old High German zimbar (German Zimmer), Norwegian tømmer, Old Norse timbr, Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (timrjan, “to build”), Latin domus and Ancient Greek δόμος (dómos).

der

(firearms, informal) The wooden stock of a rifle or shotgun.


ordnance

en-noun

ordnance (countable and uncountable, plural ordnances)

A reduced form of ordinance, which is attested from the late 14th century in the sense of "military equipment or provisions". The sense of "artillery" arises in the early 15th century, the sense "military logistics" in the late 15th century. The shortened form ordnance arises by the 17th century, now often distinguished in writing from the other meanings of ordinance. Also doublet of ordonnance.

From the belfries far and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance.

1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], pages 293–294:


Second World

Those countries aligned with the East during the Cold War, particularly in contrast to those aligned with the West (First World).


First World

(historical, politics) Those countries aligned with the West during the Cold War, particularly in contrast to those aligned with the East (Second World).

第一世界

first-world problems

(informal) Wealthy, developed nations, contrasted with the Third World.


Third World

Our district has many immigrants from Third World countries

developing countries
developing countries

(sometimes derogatory) developing countries, especially that of Africa, Asia and Latin America


Khmer Rouge

/ˈkmɛəɹ ˈɹuːʒ/

/kəˈmɛəɹ ˈɹuːʒ/

From French Khmer rouge (“red Khmer”), from Khmer (“Khmer”) + rouge (“red”).

(historical) A Cambodian communist guerrilla force active from the 1970s to the 1990s under the leadership of Pol Pot.


vane

From Middle English vane, Southern Middle English variant of fane, from Old English fana (“cloth, banner, flag”), from Proto-West Germanic *fanō, from Proto-Germanic *fanô, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂n- (“something woven; weave; tissue; fabric; cloth”).
Cognate with Saterland Frisian Foone (“flag, banner”), Dutch vaan (“banner, flag”), German Low German Fahn (“flag”), German Fahne. Doublet of obsolete fane (“weathercock; banner”) and fanon.

cog

(weaponry) One of the metal guidance or stabilizing fins attached to the tail of a bomb or other missile.


flag

en-verb

flag (third-person singular simple present flags, present participle flagging, simple past and past participle flagged)

flags (present singular third-person)
flagging (participle present)
flagged (participle past)
flagged (past)

From Middle English flag, flagge (“flag”), further etymology uncertain. Perhaps from or related to early Middle English flage (name for a baby's garment) and Old English flagg, flacg (“cataplasm, poultice, plaster”). Or, perhaps ultimately imitative, or otherwise drawn from Proto-Germanic *flaką (“something flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₂- (“flat, broad, plain”), referring to the shape.
Germanic cognates include Saterland Frisian Flaage (“flag”), West Frisian flagge (“flag”), Dutch vlag (“flag”), German Flagge (“flag”), Swedish flagga (“flag”), Danish flag (“flag, ship's flag”). Compare also Middle English flacken (“to flutter, palpitate”), Swedish dialectal flage (“to flutter in the wind”), Old Norse flögra (“to flap about”). Akin to Old High German flogarōn (“to flutter”), Old High German flogezen (“to flutter, flicker”), Middle English flakeren (“to move quickly to and fro”), Old English flacor (“fluttering, flying”). More at flack, flacker.

onomatopoeic

imitative

cog

(firearms) To point the muzzle of a firearm at a person or object one does not intend to fire on.

osoittaa

firearms: to point at a person or object one does not intend to fire on


basilisk

From Middle English basilicke, borrowed from Old French basilique, from Latin basiliscus, from Ancient Greek βασιλίσκος (basilískos) (literally "minor king or chieftain", possibly based on descriptions or rare encounters with different types of cobra which have crown-like patterns on their head; the "deadly gaze" could have been from the spitting cobra's ability to spit venom into the eyes of predators or prey from a distance), from βασιλεύς (basileús, “king”). The cognitohazard/infohazard sense is by analogy with the deadly gaze of the mythical creature.

Awake ye men of Memphis, heare the clange / Of Scythian trumpets, heare the Baſiliſkes, / That roaring, ſhake Damaſcus turrets downe, […]

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act IIII, scene i:

(weaponry) A type of large brass cannon.


spanner

Japanese: スパナ (supana)

Korean: 스패너 (seupaeneo)

Malay: sepana

The spanner for spanning or winding up the spring of the wheel lock.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, Fig. 10., page xvi:

(weaponry) A hand tool shaped like a small crank handle, for winding the spring of a wheel lock on a musket.


muzzle

From earlier muzle, musle, mousle, mussel, mozell, from Middle English mosel, from Old French musel, museau, muzeau (modern French museau), from Late Latin mūsus (“snout”), probably expressive of the shape of protruded lips and/or influenced by Latin mūgīre (“to moo, bellow”). Doublet of museau. Displaced native Middle English kevel from Old English cæfl (“gag, bit, muzzle”), see English cavel.

onomatopoeic

expressive

Coordinate term: breech

(firearms) The mouth or the end for entrance or discharge of a gun, pistol etc., that the bullet emerges from.


cannon

en-noun

cannon (countable and uncountable, plural cannons or (mainly UK) cannon)

cannons (plural)
cannon (UK mainly plural)

Attested from around 1400 as Middle English canon, canoun, from Old French canon, from Italian cannone, from Latin canna, from Ancient Greek κάννα (kánna, “reed”), from Akkadian 𒄀 (qanû, “reed”), from Sumerian 𒄀𒈾 (gi.na). Doublet of canyon.
This spelling was not fixed until about 1800.

A complete assembly, consisting of an artillery tube and a breech mechanism, firing mechanism or base cap, which is a component of a gun, howitzer or mortar. It may include muzzle appendages.

Any similar device for shooting material out of a tube.

(military, chiefly aviation) An autocannon.

(historical) A large muzzle-loading artillery piece.


rad

(firearms, slang) Abbreviation of sight radius.


sabre

Borrowed from French sabre, from German Säbel, from Polish szabla, from Hungarian szablya. Cognate with Danish sabel, Russian са́бля (sáblja), Serbo-Croatian сабља, Sicilian sciàbbula.

(British spelling, Canadian spelling, fencing) A modern fencing sword modeled after the sabre.


fertile

en-adj

fertile (comparative more fertile, superlative most fertile)

more fertile (comparative)
most fertile (superlative)

From Middle English, from Middle French fertile, from Old French fertile, from Latin fertilis (“fruitful, fertile”), from ferō (“I bear, carry”).

There are two basic fertile materials: uranium-238 and thorium-232.

(physics) Not itself fissile, but able to be converted into a fissile material by irradiation in a reactor.


battery

en-noun

battery (countable and uncountable, plural batteries)

Korean: 배터리 (baeteori)

Borrowed from Middle French batterie, from Old French baterie (“action of beating”), from batre (“battre”), from Latin battuō (“beat”), from Gaulish. Doublet of batterie.

der

the marines had six 8-inch howitzers, eight 4.2-inch mortars, and three 105-mm howitzer batteries, each with six pieces.

2005, Barry Leonard, Field Artillery in Military Operations Other Than War, page 20:

(military, countable) A coordinated group of artillery weapons.


dragon

→ Fijian: drekoni

→ Japanese: ドラゴン (doragon)

desc

→ Korean: 드래곤 (deuraegon), 드래건 (deuraegeon)

→ Marathi: ड्रॅगन (ḍrĕgan)

→ Marshallese: tūrāikōn

→ Niuean: tarākoni

→ Swahili: dragoni

→ Tamil: டிராகன் (ṭirākaṉ)

→ Yoruba: dírágónì

From Middle English dragoun, borrowed from Old French dragon, from Latin dracō(n), from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “a serpent of huge size, a python, a dragon”), probably from δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “I see clearly”). Displaced native Old English draca—a doublet of dragon, as are Draco, dracone, and dragoon.

taniwha

Maori mythological creature similar to a dragon

our dragoons were so denominated because they were armed with dragons, that is, with short muskets, which spouted fire like dragons, and had the head of a dragon wrought upon their muzzle

(military, weaponry, historical) A type of musket with a short, large-calibre barrel with a flared muzzle, often hooked to a swivel attached to a soldier's belt.


air gun

A gun that propels a projectile by compressed air or similar compressed gas (such as carbon dioxide).

空氣槍

gun that propels a projective by compressed air


conventional

en-adj

conventional (comparative more conventional, superlative most conventional)

more conventional (comparative)
most conventional (superlative)

atypical

antonym(s) of “pertaining to a convention”

weapon of mass destruction
weapon of mass destruction

(weaponry) Pertaining to a weapon which is not a weapon of mass destruction.


Lombard

en-proper noun

Lombard (countable and uncountable, plural Lombards)

From Middle English Lombard, Lumbard, borrowed from Old French Lombard, Lombart (“a Lombard”), from Late Latin langobardus, longobardus (“a Lombard”), from Germanic, derived from the Proto-Germanic elements *langaz + *bardaz; equivalent to long + beard. Some sources derive the second element instead from Proto-Germanic *bardǭ, *barduz (“axe”), related to German Barte (“axe”). Doublet of Langobard. Compare longbeard. Compare with Old English Langbeardas (“Lombards”).

Broadwater County
Broadwater County#English

A ghost town in Broadwater County, Montana, United States, named after A. G. Lombard.


ammunition

en-noun

ammunition (countable and uncountable, plural ammunitions)

From older French amunition, rebracketing of la munition (“the war supplies”) as l’amunition. Ultimately from Latin; see munition for more.

rebracketing

Articles used in charging firearms and ordnance of all kinds; as powder, balls, shot, shells, percussion caps, rockets, etc.

गोला-बारूद (golā-bārūd, literally “cannonball-gunpowder”)

گولا بارود (golā bārūd, literally “cannonball-gunpowder”)


trap

en-noun

trap (countable and uncountable, plural traps)

From Middle English trappe, from Old English træppe, treppe (“trap, snare”) (also in betræppan (“to trap”)) from Proto-West Germanic *trappjā (“trap, snare”), from Proto-West Germanic *trappjan (“to step”), from Proto-Germanic *trapjaną (“to tread, stamp”), from Proto-Indo-European *drebʰ- (“to step, trip, trample”).
Cognate with Dutch trap (“trap, snare”), German Low German Trapp (“trap”). Akin also to West Frisian traap (“stepping, treading, stairway”), German Treppe (“step, stair”), Old English træppan (“to step, tread”). Connection to "step" is "that upon which one steps". French trappe and Spanish trampa are ultimately borrowings from Germanic.

vēuháutsīe

a type of trap to catch birds using bait with adjustable loop


spear

From Middle English spere, sperre, spear, from Old English spere, from Proto-West Germanic *speru, from Proto-Germanic *speru, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-.
Cognates
See also West Frisian spear, Dutch speer, German Speer, Old Norse spjǫr, *sparrô, Middle Dutch sparre (“rafter”), Old Norse sparri (“spar, rafter”), sperra (“rafter, beam”); also Latin sparus (“short spear”), Albanian ferrë (“thorn, thornbush”).

It's not like you killed someone
It's not like you drove a spiteful spear into his side
Talk to Jesus Christ as if he knows the reasons why
He did it all for you

2000, “Judith”, performed by A Perfect Circle:

A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion.

(ice hockey) An illegal maneuver using the end of a hockey stick to strike into another hockey player.


spear

the spear side of the family


sai

A handheld weapon with three prongs, used in some Oriental martial arts.


sai

Compare Portuguese sahi, from Tupian sai (“monkey”).


sai

Borrowed from Hokkien 屎 (sái, “excrement; poop”).

bor+

[…]the employer of the unfortunate maid that was forced to makan sai are indonesians.

1998 February 10, Thye Hoon Lin, “SM Lee was right - Johor is notorious for muggings!”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):

It is Chek Lap Kok ho lang. You should makan sai. Are you an Orang Laut trying to speak Chinese?

1998 July 9, SimiSar, “[sangkancil] New HK airport faces barrage of criticism (fwd)”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):

go and take your morning shower and wash your arse with water and soap after pang sai

2003 April 18, Bone Toad, “Christ won”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):

(Singapore, Malaysia, colloquial, vulgar) shit


sleet

en-noun

sleet (countable and uncountable, plural sleets)

From Middle English slete, probably from Old English *slēte, *slȳte, *slīete, from Proto-West Germanic *slautijā, from Proto-Germanic *slautijǭ (“sleet”). Walter W. Skeat, the author of Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, suggests Old Norse slydda (whence Danish slud (“mixture of rain and snow”)). The word appears to be akin to Low German Sloot (“hail”), dialectal German Schloße (“large hailstone”), Old Gutnish sloyta (“slush, sleet”). Doublet of slut.

cog

(firearms) The part of a mortar extending from the chamber to the trunnions.


atomic

partially ordered set
partially ordered set

(order theory, of a partially ordered set with a least element 0) Such that for every element b>0 there exists an atom a such that b≥a>0.


nuke

Clipping of nuclear weapon. The verb is derived from the noun.

(colloquial) vessel running on nuclear power

Confronted with the threat of several nukes on the island, we soon realized that the Long Island Sound is being used as a massive cooling basin for nuclear reactors.

1979, Anna Gyorgy et al., “Atomic Power, Nuclear Plants”, in No Nukes: Everyone’s Guide to Nuclear Power (Black Rose Books; no. I.49), Montreal, Que.: Black Rose Books, →ISBN, page 406:

Nukes Don't Pollute

2002, Home Power - Issues 86-91, page 121:

He calculates that nukes might be needed to power energy-intensive “large scale co2 sequestration techniques” as well.

2010, Andrew Nikiforuk, Tar Sands: Dirty Oil and the Future of a Continent, page 155:

We've analyzed employee manifests at all nukes, LNG, and refineries in the United States for Middle Eastern profile matches.

nuclear power station
nuclear power station


fletcher

Inherited from Middle English fleccher, from Old French flechier; equivalent to fletch + -er.

This thing, if a man take not hede on, he may chaunce have cauſe to ſay ſo of his fletcher, as in dreſſinge of meate is commonlye ſayde of cookes: and that is, that God ſendeth us good feathers, but the devill noughtye fletchers.

1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC, book 2, page 148:

In order that distant countries should be furnished with bowyers, fletchers, and arrow head makers, any of those workmen, not being freemen of London, might be sent by the appointment of the king's council, the lord chancellor, lord privy seal, or one of them, to inhabit the city, borough or town within the realm that was destitute of such artificers.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 38:

Besides the bowyers and fletchers who made the bows and arrows, others were employed to keep them in repair: the pay of these men was sixpence a-day. Among the Tolls at Carlton Ride is the Account of the Clerk of the Privy Wardrobe, for armour, shot, &c., from 1372 to 1374; where, among many curious entries, occurs one “for the wages of two fletchers, each at vid. a-day, for going in the king's ships, and for the keeping and mending of bows and arrows in the said voyage".

1859, “The Arms, Armour and Military Usages of the Fourteenth Century”, in The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 206, page 14:

An arrow maker is a fletcher, or, more exactly, one who feathers arrows.

1955, “Sticks and Strings (A pot-pourri on bow and arrows from an article in "Michigan Conservation")”, in The Bowhunter, number 5, page 29:

I don't like using a fletcher, the single feather ones are too slow, and the three feather ones inaccurate.

1940, Archery News, volumes 19-27, page 35:

A fletcher that mechanically takes care of gluing feathers to arrow shafts is a great help in either making or repairing arrows.

Fletching jigs are available either as a single fletch unit or as a multi-fletcher, which can fletch up to six arrows at once.

2014, Brian J. Sorrells, Guide to the Longbow: Tips, Advice, and History for Target Shooting and Hunting:

A fletcher is the tool that actually holds the arrow and sets the vane or feather in place while it is being glued.

1992, by Randolph J. Hempton, Michigan Out-of-doors, volume 46, page 72:

A device to assist in fletching or feathering arrows.

Robert Frankham of Colchester, fletcher, or maker of bows and arrowy, did, by his will, dated the 20th of July, 1577, give a yearly rent-charge of thirteen shillings and four-pence out of a tenement and six acres of land in West Bergholt, for ever;

1810, The history and antiquities of the borough of Colchester, in the County of Essex:

Very speedily the Fletcher arrived. It was his trade, the making of bows and arrows, and the marks of the various makers were as well known to him as the marks on his own.

1853, “A Narrative of Border Warfare”, in The United Service Magazine, page 402:

[…] some of the best bows were made by Elven fletchers in the nearby woods to the east of the city.

2012, Shaun Robinson, A Knights Realm: Forsaken Rise, page 13:

In the spring of 1415 Nicholas Mynot was ordered by an impatient Henry to take on another dozen fletchers at the Tower armoury workshop to step up production of the bows and arrows needed in France

2012, Nigel Jones, Tower: An Epic History of the Tower of London, page 88:

Generally, a manufacturer of bows and arrows.

[…] the defendants cut down and lowered, and kept and continued so cut down and lowered, a part of the bank of the said river, situate and being between the mill of the defendants and the mill of the plaintiff, and on a part of the said bank so lowered, built and erected, and kept and continued so built and erected, a certain weir or fletcher, and by that means caused large quantities of the water of the said river, which otherwise would, and always before had, and still of right ought to have flowed to and through the plaintiff's mill, to flow in a new course or channel, […] and the said weir or fletcher, built and erected there by the defendant Inge in the month of June 1822; […]

1831, Liggins v. Inge, T. T. 1831 (court case), in Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the English Courts (1832), page 289

They [some boards] had been washed away from the fletcher by the flood.

1896 September 5, Evesham Journal, quoted in the English Dialect Dictionary

You saw the river as you came along. Just above that bridge where you crossed there is a fletcher - weir, as some call them. Diver [a dog] used to cross the stream regular by running over the fletcher, and the other dogs picked up the trick from him.

1902, The Windsor Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly for Men and Women, page 451:

(UK, dialect, possibly dated) A weir or dam.


handgun

Petric used his father's key to open a lockbox and remove a 9mm handgun and the game.

2009 January 13, M. R. Kropko, “Video-game addiction rejected as defence”, in Toronto Star:

A related design and marketing innovation has been the sale to civilians of “vest busters,” handguns specifically designed to penetrate body armor.

2013, Tom Diaz, The Last Gun: How Changes in the Gun Industry are Killing Americans and what it Will Take to Stop it, page 166:

A small gun with a relatively short barrel, designed to be held and operated with a single hand.


crossbow

→ Irish: crosbhogha (calque)

→ Japanese: クロスボウ

→ Welsh: bwa croes (calque)

From Middle English crosbowe, crossebowe, equivalent to cross + bow.

A mechanised weapon, based on the bow and arrow, that shoots bolts.


archer

from Middle English archer, archere, from Old French archier, from Vulgar Latin *arcārius, alteration of arcuārius, from Latin arcus (“bow”). Displaced native Old English sċytta.

/ˈɑː(ɹ).t͡ʃə(ɹ)/

-ɑː(ɹ)t͡ʃə(ɹ)

One who shoots an arrow from a bow or a bolt from a crossbow.

boogskutter

one who shoots an arrow from a bow or a bolt from a crossbow


sock

en-noun

sock (plural socks or (informal, nonstandard) sox)

socks (plural)
sox (informal nonstandard plural)

desctree

→ French: socquette
→ Portuguese: soquete

Japanese: ソックス (sokkusu) < socks

Swahili: soksi < socks (plural)

From Middle English socke, sokke, sok, from Old English socc (“sock, light shoe, slipper”), a West Germanic borrowing from Latin soccus (“a light shoe or slipper, buskin”), from Ancient Greek σύκχος (súkkhos, “a kind of shoe”), probably from Phrygian or from an Anatolian language. Beekes compares Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬑𐬀 (haxa, “sole of the foot”). Cognate with Scots sok (“sock, stocking”), West Frisian sok (“sock”), Dutch sok (“sock”), German Socke (“sock”), Danish sok, sokke (“sock”), Swedish sock, socka (“sock”), Icelandic sokkur (“sock”). Doublet of zocco; also related to zoccolo, socle, and zocalo.

der

(firearms, informal) Ellipsis of gun sock.


North Yemen

(historical) A country in the Middle East until 1990.


South Yemen

People's Democratic Republic of Yemen
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen

(historical) A former country in the Middle East from 1967 until 1990; full name People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.


express

From French exprès, from Latin expressus, past participle of exprimere (see Etymology 2, below).

"Give me my express," I said, laying down the Winchester, and he handed it to me cocked.

1885, H. Rider Haggard, King Solomon's Mines:


shotgun

en-noun

shotgun (countable and uncountable, plural shotguns)

desc

Japanese: → 散弾銃 (sandanjū) (calque), → ショットガン (shottogan)

→ Tok Pisin: sot gan

From shot + gun. Front passenger seat sense comes from ride shotgun.

Meat was cooked up within hours after the hunter killed the deer with his shotgun.

You can't talk to a man / With a shotgun in his hand

1971, Carole King, Gerry Goffin (lyrics and music), “Smackwater Jack”, in Tapestry, Ode Records:

(firearms) A gun which fires loads typically consisting of small metal balls, called shot, from a cartridge.


frag

Police up your extra ammo and frags, don't leave nothing for the dinks.

1986, Oliver Stone, Platoon, spoken by Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe):

fragmentation grenade
fragmentation grenade

(military slang) A fragmentation grenade.


nunchaku

en-noun

nunchaku (countable and uncountable, plural nunchakus)

Borrowed from Okinawan 双節棍 (nunchaku) (compare Japanese 双節棍 (nunchaku)), probably from Hokkien 兩節棍／两节棍 (nn̄g-chat-kùn, literally “two-segment cudgel”), from 兩／两 (nn̄g, “two”) + 節／节 (chat, “joint; link; segment”) + 棍 (kùn, “cudgel; stick”).

der

(countable) A weapon originating from Okinawa, Japan, consisting of two sticks joined by a chain or cord.

tsako

weapon consisting of two sticks joined by a chain or cord

(uncountable) The skill of using this weapon in martial arts.


fluke

From Old English flōc (“flatfish”), of Germanic origin, related to German flach (“flat”), Old Norse floke (“flatfish”), all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *flakaz.

A summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus)


fluke

Mid-16th century in the sense of “anchor blade”. Probably the same word as in etymology 2 above or else a related word for something flat (cf. Proto-Germanic *flakaz). A derivation from Middle Low German vlögel (“wing”), from Proto-Germanic *flugilaz, seems phonetically impossible. If anything, related vlōch, vlucht (“flight”, both also “wing”) or even *vlunke (modern Low German Flunk (“wing, pinion”)) are more plausible candidates. Note that the kind of whale's fin is called Fluke in contemporary German, but this is likely from English.

The fluke of the anchor was wedged between two outcroppings of rock and could not be dislodged.

The honest, rough piece of iron, so simple in appearance, has more parts than the human body has limbs: the ring, the stock, the crown, the flukes, the palms, the shank. All this, according to the journalist, is “cast” when a ship arriving at an anchorage is brought up.

1904–1906, Joseph Conrad, chapter IV, in The Mirror of the Sea, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, published October 1906, →OCLC:

(nautical) Any of the triangular blades at the end of an anchor, designed to catch the ground.

The polearm had a wide, sharpened fluke attached to the central point.

A metal hook on the head of certain staff weapons (such as a bill), made in various forms depending on function, whether used for grappling or to penetrate armour when swung at an opponent.

контра

a metal hook on the head of certain staff weapons


corn

en-noun

corn (usually uncountable, plural corns)

Kashubian: kòrné (Canada)

Tok Pisin: kon

→ Maori: kānga

Inherited from Middle English corn, from Old English corn, from Proto-West Germanic *korn, from Proto-Germanic *kurną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain; worn-down”), from *ǵerh₂- (“grow old, mature”). The sense "maize" is a clipping of Indian corn. Cognate with Dutch koren, German Low German Koorn, German Korn, Danish korn, Norwegian Bokmål korn, Norwegian Nynorsk korn and Swedish korn; see also Albanian grurë, Russian зерно́ (zernó), Czech zrno, Latin grānum and Lithuanian žirnis. Doublet of grain, gram, granum, and grao.

doublet

what does that have to do with the price of corn

R.I.P Scumpy ah you did say Popcaan
And if a boy diss we clap corn.

2014 June 9, Andrae Hugh Sutherland respectively Popcaan of Popcaan (lyrics and music), “Where We Come From” (track 13), in Where We Come From:

We got spinners and dotties
We got .40s and MACs
We got nuff live corn
[…] See the four-door pausing
Skengs out, everyone runnin
But the corn just slapped and floored em
50 shots in that mop

2016 September 9, Liquez respectively Dimzy of 67 (lyrics and music), “Jump Out Gang” (track 7), in Let’s Lurk:

(Jamaica, MLE, slang, firearms, uncountable) Bullets, ammunition, charge and discharge of firearms.


chamber

From Middle English chambre, borrowed from Old French chambre, from Latin camera, from Ancient Greek καμάρα (kamára, “vaulted chamber”). Doublet of camera.

der

A committee of marriageable ladies, or of any Christian persons interested in the propagation of the domestic virtues, should employ a Cruikshank or a Leech, or some other kindly expositor of the follies of the day, to make a series of designs representing the horrors of a bachelor's life in chambers, and leading the beholder to think of better things, and a more wholesome condition.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, “Which Had Very Nearly Been the Last of the Story”, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 120:

(dated, usually in the plural) Rooms in a lodging house.

A room or set of rooms
Rooms in a lodging house.

Dianne loaded a cartridge into the chamber of the rifle, then prepared to take aim at the target.

(firearms) The area holding the ammunition round at the initiation of its discharge.

حُجْرَة

part of a firearm holding the round before firing

(firearms) One of the bullet-holding compartments in the cylinder of a revolver.

патронник

compartment holding a bullet of a revolver

(historical) A short piece of ordnance or cannon which stood on its breech without any carriage, formerly used chiefly for celebrations and theatrical cannonades.


chamber

en-verb

chamber (third-person singular simple present chambers, present participle chambering, simple past and past participle chambered)

chambers (present singular third-person)
chambering (participle present)
chambered (participle past)
chambered (past)

The hunter fired at the geese and missed, then shrugged his shoulders and chambered another cartridge.

(transitive) To place in a chamber, as a round of ammunition.


forty-five

The robber brandished a forty-five at the cashier to make her empty the till for him.

The phoenix he helped create
Out of control boy without a dad
Shot the gun that startled my life
While I drove him with a forty-five

1998, “Soil”, in Serj Tankian (lyrics), Daron Malakian (music), System of a Down, performed by System of a Down, Track 7:


broom

en-noun

broom (countable and uncountable, plural brooms)

→ Chinook Jargon: bloom

Inherited from Middle English brom, from Old English brōm (“brushwood”), from Proto-West Germanic *brām (“bramble”) (compare Saterland Frisian Brom, West Frisian brem, Dutch braam, German Low German Braam), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem-, from *bʰer- ‘edge’. Related to brim, brink.
(shotgun): So called because it is (like the cleaning utensil) long and held similarly to a besom and “cleans” what is in front.

So keep talking all that fly shit, and I’ma grab the tool
And the lead will get stuck in your head like a catchy tune
Soon as I look down on a target, bitch, your ass is doomed
Trust exercise with Ahdi, arms out to catch a boom
You see this sweeper I got, it ain’t your average broom
This ring will wet this bitch like a happy groom

2015 September 26, Ms. Hustle (lyricist), Ms. Hustle vs. O’fficial (Summer Madness; 5), Ultimate Rap League, from 48:07–48:28:

I just got the drop, there is an opp
OFB step with the broom

2017 July 17, OFB (RV, Kash, Lowkey, Headie One, Bradz & Tuggzy) (lyrics and music), “Loyal”, 2:45–2:47:

He got forced to hold that broom, that dickhead reminds me of Cinderella

2019 September 11, Yanko (lyrics and music), “Next Up”, in #ACGK, 1:59:

Pull up to the 🎵 get whacked with the broom
TT liz on my line, so you know it got moved
Distribute, click, click, shoot
That's another face on frontline news

2020 July 2, “Stop Check”, LR of TPL (lyrics):

Back that strap then blaze, fry man
Tell bro “make sure you twos that yute”
Rise that stick when the street needs cleaning
The pigs know this ain't no average broom

2020 July 3, “Lightwork Freestyle”, Y.CB of 7th (lyrics):

If F’s in the room
step with the broom
finna here a boom with a boom!

2020 October 23, “Talk Bout Hollows”, DBF MD (lyrics), 0:30–0:33:


caltrop

From Middle English calketrappe, from Old English calcatrippe (“plant that trips”), from Medieval Latin calcatrippa (“thistle”), from Latin calx or calcare + trappa.

inh

[…] her father, the emperor Alexius, who reigned AD 1081-1118, ordered caltrops to be cast in front of his archers […]

1858, The journal of the British Archaeological Association:

By Sung times, several different types of caltrops had been developed. As in earlier times, both caltrops could be made from both wood and iron...

1954, Joseph Needham, Ling Wang, Science and civilisation in China:

Caltrops, tetrahedrons, and similar devices are designed to puncture vehicle tires or limit foot traffic. The standard design has four points.

2000, Alan Vick, Aerospace operations in urban environments: exploring new concepts:

(weaponry) A small, metal object with spikes arranged so that, when thrown onto the ground, one always faces up as a threat to pedestrians, horses, and vehicles (also used as a heraldic charge).


World War III

One time ago a crazy dream came to me / I dreamt I was walking into World War Three

1963, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Talkin' World War III Blues”, in The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan:

And I also wanted to be sure to keep Chiang Kai-shek, who had some notion of starting a World War Number Three, from going into China and doing just that.

1964, Harry S. Truman, 2:16 from the start, in MP2002-410 Several Cuts of Former President Truman Talking about Wars and Korea, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, National Archives Identifier: 595162:

The WOPR [War Operations Planning Response] has already fought World War III as a game time and time again.

1983, Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes, WarGames, spoken by Paul Richter:

A hypothetical world war following World War II.

اَلْحَرْبُ اَلْعَالَمِيَّةُ اَلثَّالِثَة


quiver

From Middle English quiver, from Anglo-Norman quivre, from Old Dutch cocare (source of Dutch koker, and cognate to Old English cocer (“quiver, case”)), from Proto-West Germanic *kokar (“container”), said to be from Hunnic, possibly from Proto-Mongolic *kökexür (“leather vessel for liquids”); see there for more. Replaced early modern cocker, the inherited reflex of that West Germanic word.

der

Don Pedro: Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], line 271:

Arrows were carried in quiver, called also an arrow case, which served for the magazine, arrows for immediate use were worn in the girdle.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 39:

(weaponry) A container for arrows, crossbow bolts or darts, such as those fired from a bow, crossbow or blowgun.

դող

shaking or moving with a slight trembling motion


furniture

en-noun

furniture (usually uncountable, plural furnitures)

From Middle French fourniture (“a supply, or the act of furnishing”), from fournir (“to furnish”).

uder

(firearms) The stock and forearm of a weapon.


arbalest

From Middle English arblast, from Old French arbaleste (modern arbalète), from Late Latin arcuballista, from Latin arcus + ballista.

He excelled with the arbalest steel crossbow, winning the nickname the Arbalestier and joined Bahriyya regiment, the crack soldiers who defeated the Crusaders and became known as the Turkish Lions and the Islamic Templars.

2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 329:


archery

en-noun

archery (countable and uncountable, plural archeries)

From Middle English archerie, from Old French archerie, from archier (“archer”). Equivalent to archer + -ery.

(uncountable) The practice or sport of shooting arrows with a bow.


shuriken

/ˈʃʊə.ɹɪ.kən/

From Japanese 手裏剣 (しゅりけん shuriken), from Middle Chinese 手 (ʃúw "hand") + 裏 (lí "inside") + 劍 (kjæ̀m "sword").

A dart or throwing blade, sometimes with multiple points, used as a weapon by ninja (or samurai).


A-bomb

(slang) An atomic bomb; a weapon that derives its energy from nuclear reactions and has enormous destructive power.


onager

From Middle English onager, onagir (“wild ass; military catapult”), from Anglo-Norman onager, Middle French onager, onagre, Old French onager, onagre (“wild ass; military catapult”) (modern French onagre), from Late Latin onager (“large siege engine”), Latin onager (“wild ass”), from Hellenistic Ancient Greek ὄναγρος (ónagros, “wild ass”), Byzantine Ancient Greek ὄναγρος (ónagros, “large siege engine”), from ὄνος (ónos, “ass”) + ἄγριος (ágrios, “wild”) (from ᾰ̓γρός (agrós, “countryside; field”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eǵ- (“to drive”)) + -ῐος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives)).
The “military engine” sense alludes to the strong recoil of the engine, likened to an onager’s kick; see the 2007 quotation.

der

The onager, meaning "wild ass," derived its name from its powerful recoil, or kick, upon discharge; […] In addition, although Josephus described an onager in action hurling a 100-pound stone over 400 yards, most onagri achieved a shorter range than the ballista, thus exposing their crews to enemy archers.

2007, Jeff Kinard, “Ancient and Medieval Artillery”, in Artillery: An Illustrated History of Its Impact (Weapons and Warfare Series), Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, →ISBN, page 17:

(military, historical) A military engine acting like a sling which threw stones from a bag or wooden bucket powered by the torsion from a bundle of ropes or sinews operated by machinery; a torsion catapult.


blow off

en-verb

blow off (third-person singular simple present blows off, present participle blowing off, simple past blew off, past participle blown off)

blows off (present singular third-person)
blowing off (participle present)
blew off (past)
blown off (participle past)

The engine or steamer is blowing off.

The 1 in 200 climb to Survilliers was surmounted with easy competence, the constant speed being just short of 60 m.p.h., the water level (by design) just under half a glass and the steam pressure approximately 275 lb/sq in, or near the blowing-off point.

1961 March, ""Balmore"", “Driving and firing modern French steam locomotives”, in Trains Illustrated, page 146:

(intransitive) To let steam escape through a passage provided for the purpose.


dope

en-noun

dope (countable and uncountable, plural dopes)

From Dutch doop (“thick dipping sauce”), from Dutch dopen (“to dip”), from Middle Dutch dopen, from Old Dutch *dōpen, from Frankish *daupijan, from Proto-Germanic *daupijaną.
“Doop” in the sense “narcotic drug” ultimately refers to viscous opium juice, the drug of choice of the ancient Greeks; “insider information” perhaps from knowing which horse had been doped in a race. Sense of "stupid person" perhaps following from the drug sense (i.e. relating to those intoxicated on opium), compare dope up. Related to English dip and German taufen.

смазка

viscous liquid used to prepare a surface

(uncountable, firearms) Ballistic data on previously fired rounds, used to calculate the required hold over a target.


patch

From Middle English patche, of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of earlier Middle English placche (“patch, spot, piece of cloth”), from Old English *plæċċ, *pleċċ (“a spot, mark, patch”), from Proto-West Germanic *plakkju, from Proto-Germanic *plakjō (“spot, stain”). For the loss of l compare pat from Middle English platten. Germanic cognates would then include Middle English plecke, dialectal English pleck (“plot of ground, patch”), West Frisian plak (“place, spot”), Low German Plakk, Plakke (“spot, piece, patch”), Dutch plek (“spot, place, stain, patch”), Dutch plak (“piece, slab”), Swedish plagg (“garment”), Faroese plagg (“cloth, rag”).
Or, possibly a variant of Old French pieche, dialectal variant of piece (“piece”). Compare also Old Occitan petaç (“patch”).

tilkku

small piece of material used to clean a gun barrel

flejtuch

piece of greased cloth used to fit a rifle ball to the bore

(firearms) A small piece of material that is manually passed through a gun barrel to clean it.

(firearms) A piece of greased cloth or leather used as wrapping for a rifle ball, to make it fit the bore.


atlatl

While large game was still hunted, mainly using projectile spears but later enhanced by atlatls (spear-throwers) and bows and arrows, evidence for the exploitation of small game such as tortoises, rabbits, wild fowl and eggs increased.

2011, Chris Stringer, The Origin of Our Species, Penguin, published 2012, page 144:

World's oldest weapon delivery system. It's called an atlatl. Developed over 30,000 years ago.

2020, Robin Pront, 31:36 from the start, in The Silencing, spoken by Jim Needles (Patrick Garrow):

A spearthrower consisting of a wooden stick with a thong or perpendicularly protruding hook on the rear end that grips a grove or socket on the butt of its accompanying spear (or dart), intended to steady the spear immediately prior to throwing, to increase its potential range when thrown, and to increase its force of penetration of the target.


mace

From Middle English mace, borrowed from Old French mace, mache, from Vulgar Latin *mattia, *mattea, matia, (compare Italian mazza, Spanish maza), probably from Proto-West Germanic *mattjō (“cutting tool, hoe”).

der

A long baton used by some drum majors to keep time and lead a marching band. If this baton is referred to as a mace, by convention it has a ceremonial often decorative head, which, if of metal, usually is hollow and sometimes intricately worked.

In the foreground one man uses the "head knife” to work over the skin on the beam, while another softens a skin with the currier's mace.

1967, Harold B. Gill, Raymond R. Townsend, Thomas K. Ford, The Leatherworker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg:

A knobbed mallet used by curriers to make leather supple when dressing it.


mace

en-verb

mace (third-person singular simple present maces, present participle macing, simple past and past participle maced)

maces (present singular third-person)
macing (participle present)
maced (participle past)
maced (past)

From the name of one brand of the spray, Mace. Pepper spray may be derived from cayenne pepper, but not from mace (etymology 2 above), which is a different spice; rather, it was named after the weapon (etymology 1).

When Reynaldo and Willie had burst into Larkey's drug store to confront him, the old man had maced Willie square in the eyes with an aerosol can of spermicidal birth-control foam.

1989, Carl Hiaasen, chapter 22, in Skin Tight, New York: Ballantine Books:

(informal) To spray a similar noxious chemical in defense or attack using an available hand-held device such as an aerosol spray can.


mace

Borrowed from Javanese [Term?] and Malay [Term?], meaning "a bean".

An old money of account in China equal to one tenth of a tael.


ahlspiess

(historical) A polearm used in Germany in the 15th century.


epee

Borrowed from French épée, from Latin spatha, from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē). Doublet of spatha, spathe, and spade.

(fencing) A sharp-pointed dueling sword with a bell-shaped guard, used (with the end blunted) in sport fencing.


épée

Borrowed from French épée, from Latin spatha, from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē). Doublet of spade and spatha.


stockpile

The noun is derived from stock (“supply of anything ready for use”) + pile (“mass of things heaped together”).
The verb is derived from the noun.

nuclear pile

semantically quite different from a nuclear stockpile

en:stock of nuclear weapons specifically

A supply (especially a large one) of something kept for future use, specifically in case the cost of the item increases or if there a shortage.

(specifically, military, weaponry) A supply of nuclear weapons kept by a country; a nuclear stockpile.


stockpile

en-verb

stockpile (third-person singular simple present stockpiles, present participle stockpiling, simple past and past participle stockpiled)

stockpiles (present singular third-person)
stockpiling (participle present)
stockpiled (participle past)
stockpiled (past)

запасявам се

to accumulate or build up a supply of (something)

To accumulate or build up a supply of (something).

(specifically, military, weaponry) To build up a stock of (nuclear weapons).


brinkmanship

en-noun

brinkmanship (usually uncountable, plural brinkmanships)

/ˈbɹɪŋk.mənˌʃɪp/

From brink (“border, edge”) + -manship (suffix denoting expertise, involvement, or special status in an area).

suffix

The diplomat accused the other nation’s leader of brinkmanship for refusing to redeploy the troops along their nations’ shared border.

They say that in ancient times the Romans used to take cold showers before deciding on important questions. Perhaps, this should be recommended to some excessively ardent supporters of the policy of brinkmanship.

1959 July, Nikita Khrushchev, “World Affairs”, in [anonymous], transl., Soviet World Outlook: A Handbook of Communist Statements (Department of State Publication; 6836; European and British Commonwealth Series; 56), 3rd edition, Washington, D.C.: Department of State, →OCLC, page 207:

We shall probably have several narrow escapes from Cuban-like brinkmanships, and although these will intensify the realisation of the need for a united world system, the inherent distrust and suspicion with which the present generation has been brought up, coupled with the too slow adaptation of politicians to new situations, will prove too great a hindrance.

1964 June 4, Joseph Rotblat, “Scientists as Peacemakers”, in Nigel Calder, editor, New Scientist, volume 22, number 394, London: Harrison, Raison and Co., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 619, column 2:

Having said this much, perhaps I can ask you in return that these critics should recognize that the administration, which now bears responsibility for the conduct of our foreign affairs, does not admire force for its own sake, or brinkmanship of any sort.

1965 May 17, William Proxmire, quoting McGeorge Bundy in the The New York Times, 17 May 1965, “Vietnam Debate: Democracy at Work”, in Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 89th Congress, First Session: Appendix (United States Senate), volume 111, part 8, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10688, column 2:

It is high time to look back from the abyss where we are going to step in and give up the brinkmanship until the point of no return is reached.

1972 April–June, Salil Dutta, “Reviews and Notices of Books: Mahaprolay Ki Ghoney Asche? (Are the Last Days Nearer?) By Jagannath Mukherjee, […]”, in Amalendu Bose, editor, The Calcutta Review, volume III, number 4 (New Series), Calcutta, West Bengal: University of Calcutta, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 324:

The Prime Minister [Tony Blair] is in Belfast today, hoping to repeat his triumph of brinkmanship of last April, when he emerged from an apparent negotiating gridlock with the Good Friday peace agreement.

1999 June 28, Derek Brown, “Brinkmanship in Belfast”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-17:

For three months, a battle of brinkmanship has been going on between the government of Alexis Tsipras and its European creditors over a cash-for-reforms plan that would give Greece the €7.2bn worth of rescue funds that it needs to meet its debt payments.

2015 May 6, “The Guardian view on Greece: dangerous brinkmanship: Editorial”, in The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-02-18:

Debt ceiling brinkmanship in 2011 sent stocks tumbling, slowed economic growth and prompted analysts to downgrade the country’s credit rating for the first time.

2021 September 23, David Leonhardt, Ian Prasad Philbrick, “Congressional brinkmanship”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-02-18:

It was an inept piece of brinkmanship from a politician who, while clearly a decent man, has not convincingly navigated his party through ever-choppier waters following the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon last February.

2024 April 29, Editorial, “The Guardian view on Humza Yousaf’s resignation: miscalculation leads to crisis”, in The Guardian, UK, →ISSN:

(chiefly politics) The pursuit of an advantage by appearing to be willing to take a matter to the brink (for example, by risking a dangerous policy) rather than to concede a point.

邊緣政策

pursuit of an advantage by appearing to be willing to take a matter to the brink rather than to concede a point


bastard sword

Any of the large, straight-bladed European swords used with either one or two hands; a longsword.


Cold War

/ˌkəʊld ˈwɔː/

Coined by American journalist Herbert Bayard Swope in 1947, in a speech he wrote for Bernard Baruch (1870–1965), an American financier and adviser to President Woodrow Wilson.

coinage

Well Russia at the present time is at a crossroads. It is often said that the Cold War is over and that the West has won it- that's only half true. Because what has happened is that the communists have been defeated, but the ideas of freedom now are on trial. If they don't work, there will be a reversion to, not communism which has failed, but what I call a new despotism which would pose a mortal danger to the rest of the world because it would be infected with the virus of Russian imperialism which of course has been a characteristic of Russian foreign policy for centuries.

1992 March 30, Richard Nixon, 13:46 from the start, in Richard Nixon on ‘Inside Washington’, Richard Nixon Foundation, via Seoul Broadcasting System, archived from the original on 2017-10-09:

The situation in Berlin had its uses for Moscow, of course, as for others–the city had become the primary listening post and spy center of the Cold War; some 70 different agencies were operating there by 1961, and it was in Berlin that Soviet espionage scored some of their greatest successes.

2005, Tony Judt, “The Politics of Stability”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN:

The dynamic tests at Wildenrath use continuous test tracks built on the site of a former Royal Air Force station that was vacated after the end of the Cold War.

2023 November 29, Philip Haigh, “New Piccadilly Line trains put to the test”, in RAIL, number 997, page 26:

(historical) The period of hostility short of open war between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, especially the United States, between 1945 and 1991.

Bernard Baruch
International Herald Tribune
Woodrow Wilson

Koue Oorlog

period of hostility short of open war between the Soviet Bloc and the Western powers, 1945–1991


flamberge

The wavy, cutting surface appears in the ‘flamberge,’ to which flame gave a name: it is nowhere better developed than in the beautiful Malay kris (crease). The object seems to be that of increasing the cutting surface.

1884, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “The Sword: What is It?”, in The Book of the Sword, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 137:

(weaponry) A European sword, typically a greatsword, which had a wavy blade, possibly to increase the cutting surface or for aid in parrying.


fizzle

en-verb

fizzle (third-person singular simple present fizzles, present participle fizzling, simple past and past participle fizzled)

fizzles (present singular third-person)
fizzling (participle present)
fizzled (participle past)
fizzled (past)

Attested in English since 1525-35. From earlier fysel (“to fart”). Related to fīsa (“to fart”). Compare with Swedish fisa (“to fart (silently)”). See also feist.
It could also come from old Norse: "fise" simply means "blow," like in "blow in the wind." A weather-exposed community in Rogaland, Norway, is called Fister. (In modern language, the verb "fisle" has the same 3 meanings as in English, see below.)

The entire project fizzled after the founder quit.

And so it fizzled to its close with Gary Cahill galloping around as an extra centre-forward, mutinous chants of “you’re not fit to wear the shirt,” from the England followers and Hodgson’s media staff announcing he would not take any questions.

2016 June 27, Daniel Taylor, “England humiliated as Iceland knock them out of Euro 2016”, in The Guardian, London:

(figuratively, informal) To decay or die off to nothing; to burn out; to end less successfully than previously hoped.


foil

en-noun

foil (countable and uncountable, plural foils)

From Middle English foyle, from Middle French fueille, from Old French fueille (“plant leaf”), from Late Latin folia, the plural of folium, mistaken as a singular feminine.
The literary sense is from the practice of backing a gem with metal foil to make it shine more brilliantly.
Doublet of folio and folium, distantly also with phyllo and phyllon.

As she a black silk cap on him begun / To set, for foil of his milk-white to serve.

a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, →OCLC:

1725-1726, William Broome, The Odyssey
Hector has also a foil to set regard

(figuratively) Anything that acts by contrast to emphasise the characteristics of something.

baggrund

anything that acts to emphasise the characteristics of something

I personally would collect all the foils from Base Set before this one, but the market is what the market is.

2016, Pojo's Unofficial Big Book of Pokémon, Triumph Books:

A premium trading card with a glossy finish.


foil

[…]but after giving her a dodge, here's another b— follows me upon the foil.

1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VII:


proof

en-verb

proof (third-person singular simple present proofs, present participle proofing, simple past and past participle proofed)

proofs (present singular third-person)
proofing (participle present)
proofed (participle past)
proofed (past)

From Middle English proof, from Old French prove, from Late Latin proba (“a proof”), from Latin probō (“to prove”); see prove; compare also the doublet probe.

(transitive, firearms) To test-fire with a load considerably more powerful than the firearm in question's rated maximum chamber pressure, in order to establish the firearm's ability to withstand pressures well in excess of those expected in service without bursting.


acinaces

From Latin acīnacēs, from Ancient Greek ἀκινάκης (akinákēs, “the short sabre of the Persians, Medes, and Scythians; a scimitar”).

der

(historical, ancient history) A short sword or saber.


trinitrotoluene

A highly explosive yellow crystalline substance, (CH₃C₆H₂(NO₂)₃), obtained by reacting nitric acid with toluene

trinitrotoluol

a highly explosive yellow crystalline substance


TNT

The third sense is an initialism of the Tagalog phrase, tago nang tago (literally, “hide and hide”).


clout

en-noun

clout (countable and uncountable, plural clouts)

From Middle English clout, from Old English clūt, from Proto-Germanic *klūtaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gelewdos, from Proto-Indo-European *gel- (“to ball up, amass”). The sense “influence, especially political” originated in the dialect of Chicago, but has become widespread.
cognates and related terms
Cognate with Old Norse klútr (“kerchief”), Swedish klut, Danish klud, Middle High German klōz (“lump”), whence German Kloß, and dialect Russian глуда (gluda). See also cleat.

der

For kings are clouts that euery man ſhoots at,
Our Crowne the pin that thouſands ſeeke to cleaue.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene iv:

A’ must shoot nearer or he’ll ne’er hit the clout.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

(archery) The center of the butt at which archers shoot; probably once a piece of white cloth or a nail head.


Tizona

The sword of Rodrigo Díaz, known as El Cid ("the Lord" or "the Master"). Also called just Cid or Campeador, a famous Castilian knight born in Vivar, Spain.


gisaring

The Gisarme called also gisaring, and, by Fleta, sisarmes is likewise an ancient weapon of the staff kind, but of what for seems doubtful.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 49:


gisarme

From Middle English gisarme, from Old French guisarme; compare modern French guisarme.

A type of polearm having a spearhead and a reverse hooked spike on the back.


bowyer

From Middle English bowyere, bowȝere, variant forms of bowere (“bowyer”), equivalent to bow + -yer.

A clause of a former act directing the bowyers of London and Westminster to make four bows of different wood for one of yew, was repealed on their representation that the citizens of London would use none but yew bows, and in its place they were ordered always to have by them at least fifty bows of elm, witch-hasel, or ash.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, pages 38–39:

A person who makes or sells bows (for use with arrows).

(archaic) A person who uses the bow, an archer.


bracer

From Middle English bracer, from Old French braceure; equivalent to brace + -er.

To prevent the bow string from hanging on the left arm, it is covered with a piece of smooth leather, fastened on the outside of the arm, this is called a bracer.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 34:

(archery) A covering to protect the arm of the bowman from the vibration of the string.


mawle

A mawle of lead five feet long, and a pike with the same hanging by a girdle with a hook, is recommended by Ralph Smith for the arms of an archer, it has been quoted at length, under the article of the long bow.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 52:

A heavy hammer or beetle, often made of wood or lead.


morris

Another kind of pike called a morris, that is a Moorish pike, was much in fashion about the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth.


morris

From Morris, the surname of its discoverer.

w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909

(obsolete) The young of the conger eel or similar fish, originally thought to be a separate species.


ferril

Fig. 3. A battle ax, in the collection of Mr. Rawle. Fig. 4. Its butt end and iron ferril, the staff on which it is fixed is octagonal, and measures five feet four inches.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page xiii:

A metal cap on the butt end of a weapon shaft, often having a sharp point.


cannonball

From cannon + ball from being a round ball that is fired from a cannon.

A spherical projectile fired from a smoothbore cannon.

kanonkoeël

An explosive-filled hollow iron sphere fused through a hole and intended to explode at a calculated distance rather than explode on impact.


barrel

From Middle English barel, from Anglo-Norman baril, Old French baril, bareil (“barrel”), of uncertain origin. An attempt to link baril to Old French barre (“bar, bolt”) (compare Medieval Latin barra (“bar, rod”)) via assumed Vulgar Latin *barrīculum meets the phonological requirement, but fails to connect the word semantically. The alternate connection to Frankish *baril, *beril or Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐍂𐌹𐌻𐍃 (bērils, “container for transport”), from Proto-Germanic *barilaz, *bērilaz (“barrel, jug, container”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, transport”), is more plausible as it connects not only the form of the word but also the sense; equivalent to bear + -le. Compare also Old High German biril (“jug, large pot”), Luxembourgish Bärel, Bierel (“jug, pot”), Old Norse berill (“barrel for liquids”), Old English byrla (“barrel of a horse, trunk, body”). More at bear.

vat

round vessel made from staves bound with a hoop

(surfing) A wave that breaks with a hollow compartment.

tynnyri

surfing: wave that breaks with a hollow compartment


rack

en-verb

rack (third-person singular simple present racks, present participle racking, simple past and past participle racked)

racks (present singular third-person)
racking (participle present)
racked (participle past)
racked (past)
rack (infinitive)

From Old English reċċan (“to stretch out, extend”).

inh

(firearms) To (manually) load (a round of ammunition) from the magazine or belt into firing position in an automatic or semiautomatic firearm.

(firearms) To move the slide bar on a shotgun in order to chamber the next round.


malle

There is also an entry of two hundred Malles in a store house at Berwick.


firecracker

She said she was awakened abruptly Friday night by the kid next door setting off a firecracker.

2011, Ken Casper, As the Crow Dies, page 120:

A small explosive device, typically containing a small amount of gunpowder in a tightly-wound roll of paper, primarily designed to produce a large bang.


mallet

From Middle English malet, maylet, from Old French mallet, maillet (“a wooden hammer, mallet”), diminutive of mal, mail (“a hammer”), from Latin malleus (“a hammer, mall, mallet”).

der

Carpenters use mallets for assembling.

We used a mallet to drive the tent pegs into the ground.

A type of hammer with a larger-than-usual head made of wood, rubber or similar non-iron material, used by woodworkers for driving a tool, such as a chisel. A kind of maul.

The Mallet of arms, according to the representation of it given by Father Daniel, exactly resembles the wooden instrument of that name, now in use, except in the length of the handle, it was like the hammer of arms, to be used with both hands, indeed it differed very little from that weapon in its form.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 51:

(weaponry) A weapon resembling the tool, but typically much larger.

(music) A small hammer-like tool used for playing certain musical instruments.

(games) A light beetle with a long handle used in playing croquet.

I regularly have cause to recall a scene from a novel called Madder Music, by Peter de Vries, in which the main character, a writer who specialises in polo, hears a match announcer telling newcomers to the ground that, contrary to popular belief, the ball is struck with the side of the mallet, rather than the end.

2016 September 13, Tim Dowling, “Order force: the old grammar rule we all obey without realising”, in The Guardian:

(sports) The stick used to strike the ball in the sport of polo.


firework

Commercial firework displays are commonly launched from boats or other vessels

Saltpetre being the principal ingredient in fireworks, and a volatile body, by reaſon of its aqueous and aërial parts, is eaſily rarified by fire; but not ſo ſoon when foul and groſs, as when purified from its crude and earthy parts, which greatly retard its velocity: therefore, when any quantity of Fireworks are to be made, it ſhould be examined; for if it is not well cleanſed, and of a good ſort, your works will not have their proper effect; […]

1776, Robert Jones, John Muller, “Sect. I. Saltpetre.”, in Artificial Fireworks, Improved to the Modern Practice, from the Minutest to the Highest Branches; … Also, Mr. Muller's Fireworks, for Sea and Land Service, …, 2nd corr. edition, London: Printed for J. Millan, near Whitehall, →OCLC, page 1:

A device using gunpowder and other chemicals which, when lit, emits a combination of coloured flames, sparks, whistles or bangs, and sometimes made to rocket high into the sky before exploding, used for entertainment or celebration.


sword-breaker

The deepest indentations are in the so-called Sword-breakers (brise-épées), mostly of the fifteenth century.

1884, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “The Sword: What is It?”, in The Book of the Sword, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 138:

A short sword or dagger with a deeply notched or toothed blade, or with secondary projections, designed to catch or grapple an opponent's weapon.


quillon

The guard of a sword or other bladed weapon designed to protect the hand from harm.


backsword

A stick with a basket handle, used in rustic amusements.


toledo

Peregrine's weapon entering a kind of net work in the shell of Godfrey's sword, the blade snapped in two, and left him at the mercy of the soldier, who, far from making an insolent use of the victory he had gained, put up his Toledo with great deliberation […].

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter XXXI, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume I, London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:

A long toledo, vvith a hilt of filigrained ſteel, length of the blade three feet nine inches, finely tapering to a point.

1786, Francis Grose, “Description of the Plates. Plate XXXIX.”, in A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, […], London: […] S. Hooper, […], →OCLC, page xv:

‘Fair Neophyte, beautiful Christian,’ answered the stranger, with a diabolical sneer, ‘be it known to you that I regard bolts, and bars, and walls, as much as I did the breakers and rocks of your Indian isle—that I can go where, and retire when I please, without leave asked or taken of your brother’s mastiffs, or Toledos, or spring-guns, and in utter defiance of your mother’s advanced guard of duennas, armed in spectacles, and flanked with a double ammunition of rosaries, with beads as large as—’

1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 274:

A sword or sword blade made at Toledo in Spain, a city famous in the 16th and 17th centuries for the excellence of its weapons.


glaive

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-glaive.wav

From Middle English gleyve (“lance, glaive”), from Old French glaive (“lance; sword”), from Late Latin glavus. The further etymology is uncertain; one possibility is that glavus reflects Latin gladius (“sword”) crossed with clāva (“club”); another is that it derives from a re-crossing of gladius with Proto-Celtic *kladiwos (“sword”); yet another is that it is a borrowing into Late Latin from Old Irish claideb. All of the aforementioned words derive ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₂- (“to beat; to break”). The Oxford English Dictionary notes that none of these words had the oldest meaning of Old French glaive (“lance”). The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch glavie, glaye (“lance”); Middle High German glavîe, glævîn (“lance”), Swedish glaven (“lance”).

ref

From Wendelin Boeheim (1890) “Die Glese und die Couse”, in Handbuch der Waffenkunde. Das Waffenwesen in seiner historischen Entwicklung vom Beginn des Mittelalters bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts [Handbook of Weapon Knowledge. Weaponry in Its Historical Development from the Beginning of the Middle Ages to the End of the 18th Century.] (Seemanns kunstgewerbliche Handbücher; VII), Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, →OCLC, figure 396, pages 343–344.

der

[T]he glaiue which he did wield / He gan forthwith t'auale, and way vnto me yield.

1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 19, page 144:

Wherefore do you ſo ill tranſlate yourſelf, / Out of the ſpeech of peace, that bears ſuch grace, / Into the harſh and boiſt'rous tongue of war? / Turning your books to glaives, your ink to blood, / Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine / To a loud trumpet, and a point of war?

c. 1596–1599, William Shakespear[e], “The Second Part of Henry IV. […]”, in The Works of Mr. William Shakespear, volume III (Consisting of Historical Plays), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon-Press, published 1770, →OCLC, act IV, scene i, page 426:

Juſtice were cruel weakly to relent; / From Mercy’s Self ſhe got her ſacred Glaive: / Grace be to thoſe who can, and will, repent; / But Penance long, and dreary, to the Slave, / Who muſt in Floods of Fire his groſs ſoul Spirit lave.

1748, James Thomson, “Canto II”, in The Castle of Indolence: […], London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXIX, page 60:

Thus furth he drew his truſty glaive, / While thouſands all arround, / Drawn frae their ſheaths glanſt in the ſun, / And loud the bougills ſound.

1750, Allan Ramsay, “Hardyknute. A Fragment of an Old Heroic Ballad.”, in The Tea-table Miscellany: Or, A Collection of Choice Songs, Scots and English, […], 11th edition, volume I, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, stanza XXI, page 215:

Yea, that same awful angel with the glaive / Which in disparadising orbit swept / Lintel and pilaster and architrave

a. 1908 (date written), Francis Thompson, “[Miscellaneous Odes.] Laus Amara Doloris”, in The Works of Francis Thompson, volume II (Poems), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons […], published 1913, →OCLC, page 124:

(loosely or poetic, archaic) A sword, particularly a broadsword.


truncheon

/ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/

/ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/

From Middle English tronchoun, from Old French tronchon (“thick stick”), from Late Latin *troncionem, from Latin truncus.

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword / The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe / Become them with one half so good a grace / As mercy does.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 60:

A baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer.

полицейска палка

a baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer


smelly

A comical pronunciation of the initials SMLE.

(firearms, informal) a Short Magazine Lee Enfield rifle or one of its derivatives.


musket

First attested around 1210 as a surname, and later in the 1400s as a word for the sparrowhawk (Middle English forms: musket, muskett, muskete (“sparrow hawk”)), from Middle French mousquet, from Old Italian moschetto (a diminutive of mosca (“fly”), from Latin musca) used to refer initially to a sparrowhawk (given its small size or speckled appearance) and then a crossbow arrow. The name was subsequently adopted for a heavier, shoulder-fired version of an arquebus, adhering to a pattern of naming firearms and cannons after birds of prey and similar creatures (compare falcon, falconet), a sense which was also borrowed into French and then (around 1580) into English. Cognate to Spanish mosquete, Portuguese mosquete. Smoothbore firearms continued to be called muskets even as they switched from using matchlocks to flintlocks to percussion locks, but with the advent of rifled muskets, the word was finally displaced by rifle.

Eurasian sparrowhawk
Eurasian sparrowhawk

Accipiter nisus
Accipiter nisus#Translingual

(falconry) A male Eurasian sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus).


charge

en-noun

charge (countable and uncountable, plural charges)

From Middle English chargen, from Old French chargier, from Late Latin carricō (“to load”), from Latin carrus (“a car, wagon”); see car. Doublet of cargo.

(firearms) A measured amount of powder and/or shot in a cartridge.

to bring a weapon to the charge

(weaponry) A position (of a weapon) fitted for attack.

At about the same time I went off pills and started smoking charge marijuana, you know.

1966, Alan Bestic, Turn Me on Man, page 58:

It had been a false alarm, and £2 worth of charge (marijuana) had gone out of the window.

1970, Sean O'Callaghan, Drug Addiction in Britain, page 51:


morning star

morning star (countable and uncountable, plural morning stars)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-morning star.wav

From morning + star. Compare West Frisian moarnstjer, Dutch morgenster, German Morgenstern, Swedish morgonstjärna, Icelandic morgunstjarna. Application to Satan derives, like the corresponding sense of Lucifer (which see), from what is probably a misinterpretation of Isaiah 14:12 (NIV: "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!").

Contrivances like these, except that the balls were armed with spikes, were long carried by the pioneers of the trained bands, or city militia, they are generally called morning stars.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 55:

(military, countable) A weapon consisting of a heavy ball set with spikes attached rigidly to a staff, in contrast to a flail.


butt

en-verb

butt (third-person singular simple present butts, present participle butting, simple past and past participle butted)

butts (present singular third-person)
butting (participle present)
butted (participle past)
butted (past)

From Middle English butten, from Anglo-Norman buter, boter (“to push, butt, strike”), from Frankish *bautan (“to hit, beat”), from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to beat, push”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to beat, push, strike”). Cognate with Old English bēatan (“to beat”). More at beat.

һөҙөшөү

(intransitive) to strike bluntly with the head

Teacher! He just butted me!

Additionally, kids are pinched, fondled, propositioned, and hit; and it all goes unseen amid the general confusion and nonspecific orders from the cafeteria supervisors who are yelling things like, "Keep it down, you people!" "No butting!" "Wait your turn, boys!" All of which sound as though there is law and order, just no actual justice to the victim.

2016, Chandler, Dan, Bullying in Plain Sight: How Inattentive Adults Encourage the School Bullies, Mustang, O.K.: Tate Publishing and Enterprises, LLC, →ISBN, page 45:

(transitive, eastern Canada, parts of the northeastern US) To cut in line (in front of someone).


bayonet

From French baïonnette, named after the French town of Bayonne, where the plug bayonet was invented.

Fig. 3. Its bayonet, to be fixed by sticking the handle into the muzzle of the musquet.

1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page xvi:

“Well, the proper way to kill a man with a bayonet is this: First you thrust it in under the ribs—here.”

1997, Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; republished New York: Vintage Books, 1998, →ISBN, page 515:

(military) A pointed instrument of the dagger kind fitted on the muzzle of a musket or rifle, so as to give the soldier increased means of offence and defence. Originally, the bayonet was made with a handle, which needed to be fitted into the bore of the musket after the soldier had fired.


catapult

From Middle French catapulte, from Latin catapulta, from Ancient Greek καταπέλτης (katapéltēs), from κατά (katá, “downwards, into, against”) + πάλλω (pállō, “I poise or sway a missile before it is thrown”). Doublet of catapulta.


lance

From Middle English launce, from Old French lance, from Latin lancea.

Thy brother’s blood the thirsty earth hath drunk, Broach’d with the steely point of Clifford’s lance[…]

c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], line 15:

The head of the lance was commonly of the leaf form, and sometimes approached that of the lozenge; it was very seldom barbed, although this variety, together with the others, appears upon the Bayeux Tapestry.

1909, Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms & Armor, page 65:

A weapon of war, consisting of a long shaft or handle and a steel blade or head; a spear carried by horsemen.

(fishing) A spear or harpoon used by whalers and fishermen.

(military) An instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordnance and forces it home.

Harpune mit Sprenggeschoss

(military) instrument which conveys the charge of a piece of ordinance

(pyrotechnics) One of the small paper cases filled with combustible composition, which mark the outlines of a figure.


chu-ko-nu

/ˌtʃuːkəʊˈnuː/

From Mandarin 諸葛弩／诸葛弩 (Zhūgě nǔ, literally “Zhuge crossbow”) via Wade–Giles.

bor

The chu-ko-nu, equipped with a magazine to hold bolts or, as in this case, pellets, was used in China well into the twentieth century (Needham et al. 1994: 157-64; Selby 2003: 62-63).

2007, C. E. Grayson, M. French, M. J. O'Brien, Traditional Archery from Six Continents, University of Missouri Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 24:

While traditional bows were all about placing carefully selected shots, the chu-ko-nu could rattle off about one shot every two seconds, raining down a shitstorm of indiscriminate crossbow fire that would scare the Fu Manchu right off the enemy.

2013, John O'Bryan, A History of Weapons, Chronicle Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 84:

Ejecting and replacing the magazine from her chu–ko–nu, she grimly fastened the ribbon holding the gruesome trophy to her belt.

2016, Felix Long, To Conquer Heaven, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 364:


kris

→ Serbo-Croatian: kris

Borrowed from Malay keris. Doublet of kalis. Recognized as part of English ca. 1580.

Anne Talbot looked demurely ravishing, as was her intention, in a very low-cut evening frock of bottle-green, choker of Kelantan silver, earrings in the shape of krises.

1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 292:

A traditional Indonesian, Malaysian, or Filipino sword or dagger having a tapering, usually serpentine blade.


pilum

Besides a lighter spear, the Roman legionary grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin whose utmost length was about six feet and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of about eighteen inches.

1776, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Penguin 2000, page 21:

Verica plucked a pilum from the hands of the nearest legionary – the soldier didn't react – and handed it to me.

2011, Ben Aaronovitch, Rivers of London, Gollancz 2011, page 371:


dirk

Etymology unknown, apparently from Scots dirk.
First attested in 1602 as dork, in the later 17th century as durk. The spelling dirk is due to Johnson's Dictionary of 1755.
Early quotations as well as Johnson 1755 suggest that the word is of Scottish Gaelic origin, but no such Gaelic word is known. The Gaelic name for the weapon is biodag. Gaelic duirc is merely an 18th-century adoption of the English word.
A possible derivation is from the North Germanic/Scandinavian personal name Dirk (short for Diederik), which is used of lock-picking tools (but not of knives or daggers). Alternatively a corruption of Low German Dulk, Dolk (“dagger”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dulkaz, *dalkaz (“knife, dagger”), related to Saterland Frisian Dolk (“dagger”), West Frisian dolk (“dagger”), Dutch dolk (“dagger”), German Dolch (“dagger”).

unk

unknown

In half a minute he had reached the port scuppers, and picked, out of a coil of rope, a long knife, or rather a short dirk, discolored to the hilt with blood.

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

In this kit was the ‘Officer of the Watch’ telescope from Dolland and Sons, presented to me by my godmother, Inman's Nautical Tables, a parallel ruler, and, of course, a dirk.

1996, Frank Twiss, Social Change in the Royal Navy, 1924–1970:

(nautical) A ceremonial dagger worn by naval or air force officers in some nations' militaries; formerly, a fighting dagger used by sailors as a boarding weapon.

dirk

a ceremonial dagger worn by naval officers; formerly, a boarding weapon used by sailors


clay

en-noun

clay (usually uncountable, plural clays)

soul

antonym(s) of “material of the human body”

From Middle English cley, clay, from Old English clǣġ (“clay”), from Proto-West Germanic *klaij, from Proto-Germanic *klajjaz (“clay”), from Proto-Indo-European *gley- (“to glue, paste, stick together”).
Cognate with Dutch klei (“clay”), Low German Klei (“clay”), German Klei, Danish klæg (“clay”); compare Ancient Greek γλία (glía), Latin glūten (“glue”) (whence ultimately English glue), Russian глина (glina, “clay”). Related also to clag, clog.

der

We went shooting clays at the weekend.


javelin

From Middle English [Term?], from Old French javelline, diminutive of javelot, diminutive of *javel, from Vulgar Latin *gabalus, from Gaulish gabulum (compare Old Irish gabul (“fork”), Welsh gafl), from Proto-Celtic *gablā (“fork, forked branch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ-. The Old French term was also borrowed into Middle Low German as gaveline, and into Middle High German as gabilot. Cognate with gavelock, gaffle.

A metal-tipped spear thrown for distance in an athletic field event.


spud

From Middle English spudde (“small knife”). Origin unknown; probably related to Danish spyd, Old Norse spjót (“spear”), German Spieß (“spear; spike; skewer”). Compare English spit (“sharp, pointed rod”). The use of the term for a potato was perhaps first used in New Zealand and Australian dialect and slang.

As I turned out of the wood, I heard the shrill tone of infant wailing; and as I came towards the cottage, I saw a fine flaxen-headed urchin, some six or seven years old, stamping and beating himself with his clenched little spuds of fists, in a perfect ecstasy of passion […]

1844, Richard Sainthill, An Olla Podrida: Or, Scraps, Numismatic, Antiquarian, and Literary:

1728, Jonathan Swift, A Pastoral Dialogue, 1910, William Browning (editor), The Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume 2, 2004, Gutenberg eBook #13621,
My love to Sheelah is more firmly fixt, / Than strongest weeds that grow these stones betwixt: / My spud these nettles from the stone can part; / No knife so keen to weed thee from my heart.

1885, Richard Jefferies, After London: or Wild England, 2004 [1905], Gutenberg eBook #13944,
Deprived of motion by the blow of the club, it can, on the other hand, be picked up without trouble and without the aid of a dog, and if not dead is despatched by a twist of the Bushman's fingers or a thrust from his spud. The spud is at once his dagger, his knife and fork, his chisel, his grub-axe, and his gouge. It is a piece of iron (rarely or never of steel, for he does not know how to harden it) about ten inches long, an inch and a half wide at the top or broadest end, where it is shaped and sharpened like a chisel, only with the edge not straight but sloping, and from thence tapering to a point at the other, the pointed part being four-sided, like a nail.

"I rigged up a contraption to hold off those stinking beasts, and I spent a happy day there with a spud."

1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

A most respectable old Johnnie, don't you know. Doesn't do a thing nowadays but dig in the garden with a spud.

1925, P. G. Wodehouse, “Jeeves Takes Charge”, in Carry On, Jeeves, Arrow Books, published 2008, page 19:

A tool, similar to a spade, used for digging out weeds etc.

малка мотика

spade-like tool used for digging out weeds


spud

en-verb

spud (third-person singular simple present spuds, present participle spudding, simple past and past participle spudded)

spuds (present singular third-person)
spudding (participle present)
spudded (participle past)
spudded (past)

A rope called the jerk line is attached to the wrist pin of the band-wheel crank, brought inside the derrick, and attached to the part of the drilling cable which extends from the crown pulley to the bull-wheel shaft by a curved metal slide called a spudding shoe. (See fig. 8.)

1911, Isaiah Bowman, United States Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 257: Well-Drilling Methods, page 46:

When a well is spudded, the drilling assembly is loosely tied to the guide wires with 1/2″ manila rope.

1999, Steve Devereux, Drilling for Oil & Gas: A Nontechnical Guide, page 86:

Spudding is the process of lifting and dropping the pile constantly until the obstruction is broken into pieces. Obviously, spudding cannot be done with lighter piles (timber or pipe piles). Concrete piles and steel H-piles are good candidates for spudding.

2008, Ruwan Rajapakse, Pile Design and Construction Rules of Thumb, page 367:

Prepayments of drilling expenses are deductible by tax-shelter investors only if the well is “spudded” within 90 days after the close of the taxable year in which the prepayment was made, and the deduction is limited to the original amount of the investment.

2008, J. K. Lasser, J.K. Lasser′s Your Income Tax: 2009, Professional, Edition, page 238:

(drilling) To begin drilling an oil well; to drill by moving the drill bit and shaft up and down, or by raising and dropping a bit.


spud

A game for three or more players, involving the gradual elimination of players by throwing and catching a ball.


cosh

A weapon made of leather-covered metal similar to a blackjack.

A blunt instrument such as a bludgeon or truncheon.


cosh

en-adj

cosh (comparative more cosh, superlative most cosh)

more cosh (comparative)
most cosh (superlative)


drib

en-verb

drib (third-person singular simple present dribs, present participle dribbing, simple past and past participle dribbed)

dribs (present singular third-person)
dribbing (participle present)
dribbed (participle past)
dribbed (past)

From dialectal English drib (compare also drub), a variant from Middle English drepen (“to hit, strike, slay”), from Old English drepan (“to strike, kill, overcome”), from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to hit, strike”).

inh

(transitive, archery) To shoot directly at short range.

(intransitive, archery) To shoot at a mark at short range.

Not at first sight, nor with a dribbèd shot, / Love gave the wound […]

c. 1580s, Philip Sidney, “Astrophel and Stella”, in [Mary Sidney], editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia […] [The New Arcadia], 3rd edition, London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1598, →OCLC, sonnet 2, page 519:

(transitive, archery) To shoot (a shaft) so as to pierce on the descent.


fletch

A modification of fledge (“to acquire feathers”) due to the influence of fletcher (“arrow-maker”). Compare flèche.

(archery) The vane toward the back of an arrow, used to stabilise the arrow during flight.


chive

en-verb

chive (third-person singular simple present chives, present participle chiving, simple past and past participle chived)

chives (present singular third-person)
chiving (participle present)
chived (participle past)
chived (past)

From Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).

Adieu to Haul-Cly, adieu to stopping Coaches, and adieu to all the hurry-scurry of Foot-Scampering, filing, chiving, milling, and sneaking[…]

1728, James Dalton, A Genuine Narrative of all the Street Robberies committed since October last, by James Dalton and his Accomplices, page 59:

He was as good a man as Jacky at any weapon that could be named, and if Jacky were game for a chiving (stabbing) match, he (Kavanagh) was ready for him.

1868 May 14, Cassell's Magazine, page 80:

After the place got well where I was chived, me and another screwed a place at Stoke Newington

1879 October 14, Rev. John William Horsley, “Autobiography of a Thief”, in Macmillan's Magazine, volume 40, page 503:


baton

(weaponry, US) A short stout club used primarily by policemen.


saker

From Middle English sacre, from Middle French sacre, from Old Spanish sacro, from Arabic صَقْر (ṣaqr).

Falco cherrug
Falco cherrug#Translingual

A falcon (Falco cherrug) native of Southern Europe and Asia.


shiv

shiv (third-person singular simple present shivs, present participle shivving or shiving, simple past and past participle shivved or shived)

shivs (present singular third-person)
shivving (participle present)
shiving (participle present)
shivved (participle past)
shivved (past)
shived (participle past)
shived (past)

First attested 1915. From chive, chieve, chife, chiv (“knife”), from Romani chive, chiv, chivvomengro (“knife, dagger, blade”).

(transitive, by extension) To stab (someone) with anything not normally used as a stabbing weapon.


salvo

A 1719 alteration of salva (“simultaneous discharge of guns”) (1591) from Latin salva (“salute, volley”) (compare French salve, also from Italian), from Latin salve (“hail”), the usual Roman greeting, imperative of salvere (“to be in good health”).

(military) A concentrated fire from pieces of artillery, as in endeavoring to make a break in a fortification; a volley.


skeet

Unknown. Compare Icelandic skeið (“spoon”), from Old Norse skeið (“a sheath”). Attested from the 15th century; see quotation below.

The best method for wetting the after sails is with a garden syringe or small engine[…] For the head sails a skeet made of tough ash, having a good long handle ; the head or skeeting part curves scimitar fashion, to be about three and a half feet in length, and scooped out an inch and a half in width by two and a half inches in depth

1862, Vanderdecken [William Cooper], The Yacht Sailor, page 131:

(nautical) A scoop with a long handle, used to wash the sides of a vessel and formerly to wet the sails or deck.


shunt

From Middle English shunten, schunten, schonten, schounten, shont, shonte, shount, shounten, shunte (“to move rapidly or suddenly, jerk; to swerve, turn away; to avoid, dodge, escape, evade”), either:
* possibly a back-formation from Middle English shǒnen (“to decline to do, refuse; to abandon, forsake; to disdain, dislike, hate; to avoid, escape; to be afraid, fear; to be wary of”), from Old English sċunian, sċyniġan; see shun. Or
* an alteration of Middle English shunden, *schunden, *schinden, from Old English sċyndan, sċendan (“to hasten, hurry”) (as in āsċyndan (“to remove, take away”), from Proto-West Germanic *skundijan, from Proto-Germanic *skundijaną (“to compel, drive, push; to accelerate, rush, speed up”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kew(n)t- (“to rattle, shake”).
* from unrecorded Old English *sċunettan, a derivative of sċunian (“to shun, avoid”).
The English word is cognate with Danish skynde (“to hasten, hurry, speed”), Icelandic skynda, skunda (“to hasten”), Middle High German schünden (“to compel; to urge; to irritate”), Norwegian skynde (“to hurry, rush”), Swedish skynda (“to hasten, hurry; to scuttle, scurry”). Outside Germanic, compare Sanskrit स्कन्दति (skándati, “to dart, leap, spring, spurt or burst forth, ejaculate, assail, drop, split”), Albanian shkund (“to shake; to swig”).
As regards the noun sense, compare Middle English shunt (“swerve; sudden jerk”), derived from the verb.

cog

In length, this gun was the same as the French, but weighed 9 cwt. less. It was rifled in six grooves on the shunt plan, in the form in which it has been generally applied to large guns, with the difference that some of the angles of the grooving were rounded off. […] To impede fouling, a slightly greater windage was allowed in the chamber of the shunt gun, the diameter there being 0.04 greater than at the mouth of the bore.

1865 October, “Rifled Guns and Missiles”, in Colburn’s United Service Magazine and Naval and Military Journal, part III, number CCCCXLIII, London: Hurst and Blackett, publishers, successors to Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 170:

The shunt system, of which the 64-pr. is the only example now in the service, has been considered inferior to the Woolwich, because besides being unnecessarily complicated, the grooves which are cut with abrupt sharp angles weaken the gun. […] [I]n the shunt gun, however, in addition to the mere fact of the driving side of the double groove being shallow, and the loading side deep, the two grooves join in one deep one at 2 feet 7.5 inches from the muzzle, […]

1870, Charles Orde Browne, “Section II. Muzzle-loading Armstrong, Shunt System.”, in Ammunition. A Descriptive Treatise on the Different Projectiles, Charges, Fuzes, &c., at Present in Use for Land and Sea Service, and on Other War Stores Manufactured in the Royal Laboratory, part II (Ammunition for Rifled Ordnance), London: Printed under the superintendence of Her Majesty's Stationery Office by George Edward Eyre and William Spottiswoode, […], →OCLC, page 108:

(firearms) The shifting of the studs on a projectile from the deep to the shallow sides of the grooves in its discharge from a shunt gun.


ballista

en-noun

ballista (plural ballistas or ballistae or ballistæ)

ballistas (plural)
ballistae (plural)
ballistæ (plural)

Borrowed from Latin ballista, from Ancient Greek βαλλίστρα (ballístra), from βάλλω (bállō, “I throw”).

(weaponry, historical) An ancient military engine, in the form of a crossbow, used for hurling large missiles.

عَرَّادَة

crossbow-like military engine for hurling large missiles


breech

breech (countable and uncountable, plural breeches)

From Middle English breche, from Old English brēċ, from Proto-Germanic *brōkiz pl, from Proto-Germanic *brōks (“clothing for loins and thighs”). Cognate with Dutch broek, Alemannic German Bruech, Swedish brok. Doublet of vraka.

der

Coordinate term: muzzle

(firearms) The part of a cannon or other firearm behind the chamber.


gauge

en-noun

gauge (countable and uncountable, plural gauges)

From Middle English gauge, gaugen, from Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French gauger (compare Modern French jauger from Old French jaugier), from gauge (“gauging rod”), from Frankish *galga (“measuring rod, pole”), from Proto-Germanic *galgô (“pole, stake, cross”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰalgʰ-, *ǵʰalg- (“perch, long switch”). Cognate with Old High German galgo, Old Frisian galga, Old English ġealga (“cross-beam, gallows”), Old Norse galgi (“cross-beam, gallows”), Old Norse gelgja (“pole, perch”). Doublet of gallows.

cog

(firearms) A unit of measurement which describes how many spheres of bore diameter of a shotgun can be had from one pound of lead; 12 gauge is roughly equivalent to .75 caliber.


hake

From Middle English hake, probably a shortened form (due to North Germanic influence) of English dialectal haked (“pike”). Compare Norwegian hakefisk (“trout, salmon”), Middle Low German haken (“kipper”). More at haked.

Hake is an expensive fish—and is also very vulnerable to damage by mis-handling.

1964 October, P. Baxter, “Fleetwood is sceptical of BR's fish train plan”, in Modern Railways, page 255:

Off the United States, the National Marine Fisheries Service is helping industry explore fisheries for deep shrimp, rattails, chimeras, orange roughy, smoothheads, slackjaw eels, blue hake, skates and dogfish, which the National Fisheries Institute, an industry group, in an effort to improve their marketability, has renamed cape shark.

1995 December 26, William J. Broad, “Creatures of the Deep Find Their Way to the Table”, in The New York Times:

One of several species of marine gadoid fishes, of the genera Phycis, Merluccius, and allies.


partisan

From French partizaine, from Middle French partizaine, partisanne etc., from Italian partigiana, related to Etymology 1 above (apparently because it was seen as a typical weapon of such forces).

I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service as a partisan I could not heave.

c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:

Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with bills and partisans brandished, and bows already bended.

(historical) A long-handled spear with a triangular, double-edged blade having lateral projections, in some forms also used in boar hunting.


core

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

Rossiter W[orthington] Raymond
w:Rossiter W. Raymond

A miner's underground working time or shift.


secondary

From Middle English secundarie, from Latin secundārius (“of the second class or quality”), from secundus (whence the English second) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary), equivalent to second + -ary; compare the French secondaire, the Italian secondario, the Occitan secundari, the Portuguese secundario, and the Spanish secundario.

der

English numerals#Ordinal numbers
secondary

(ornithology) Any flight feather attached to the ulna (forearm) of a bird.

thermonuclear weapon
thermonuclear weapon

(military) The second stage of a multistage thermonuclear weapon, which generates a fusion explosion when imploded as an indirect result of the fission explosion of the primary, and which, in a few extremely large weapons, itself implodes a fusion tertiary.

secondary colour
secondary colour#English


toxotes

From Ancient Greek τοξότης (toxótēs, “bowman, archer”).

uder

(historical) A Greek archer armed with a short Greek bow and a short sword.


tweak

en-verb

tweak (third-person singular simple present tweaks, present participle tweaking, simple past and past participle tweaked)

tweaks (present singular third-person)
tweaking (participle present)
tweaked (participle past)
tweaked (past)

From Middle English twikken, from Old English twiccian (“to pluck”), from Proto-West Germanic *twekkōn (“to fasten; clamp; pinch”). Related to twitch. The drug-related sense may be a blend of twitch and freak.

inh

(military, weaponry, uncommon) From a catapult, to strike a target with a missile.


bombshell

A bomb or artillery shell designed to explode on impact.

бо́мба

a bomb or artillery shell designed to explode on impact

Diana Dors, the 1950s blonde bombshell

The singer once identified by her shock of green hair has gone blonde and full bombshell, swapping her trademark sweats for a style more domme than deb: pink Gucci corset and skirt over Agent Provocateur skivvies, accessorized with latex gloves and leggings.

2021 May 4, Ruth La Ferla, “On That Bombshell Billie Eilish Cover for British Vogue”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(by extension) Someone who is very attractive; a sex symbol.


scythe

From Middle English sythe, sithe, from Old English sīþe, sīgþe, sigdi (“sickle”), from Proto-West Germanic *sigiþi, from Proto-Germanic *sigiþiz, *sigiþō, derived from *seg- (“saw”), from Proto-Indo-European *sek- (“to cut”).
Immediate Germanic cognates include Middle Low German sēgede, Dutch zicht, Icelandic sigð (all “sickle”). More distantly related with Dutch zeis, German Sense (both “scythe”). Also akin to English saw, which see.
The silent c crept in during the early 15th century owing to pseudoetymological association with Medieval Latin scissor (“tailor, carver”), from Latin scindere (“to cut, rend, split”).
The verb, which was first used in the intransitive sense, is from the noun.

noncog

(historical) A scythe-shaped blade attached to ancient war chariots.