Flail and Maul and Flamberge and Flamboyant

Any word lover runs into countless words describing historical (and present-day) weapons. Though most of the current crop of weapons is meant to "blow people away," historically weapons had a much more focused mission--to tear, crush or penetrate armor. This web site divides the weapons into six categories: (1) brawling weapons; (2) one-handed blunt weapons; (3) one-handed edged weapons; (4) pole arms; (4) two-handed weapons; (5) missile weapons; and (6) thrown weapons. Some of these categories have about a dozen or so specific weapons, and some of the individual or specific weapons are known by at least ten names. Thus, the number of words describing weapons here probably exceeds 150. Many of the words are worth learning, and this and the next essay intends to introduce you to some of them.

Maul and Poniard

Believing as I do that many abstract concepts originated in things or objects, I will look at the words maul, flail and flamberge in this essay. They all appear in the two-handed weapons category. A maul, also known as a tetsubo or sledgehammer, is derived from the Latin word for hammer (malleus) and was originally a heavy iron hammer or sledgehammer used in pile-driving, shipbuilding or mining. Within a century after first being introduced into English, the maul became a weapon. It consisted of a long handle with a mallet-like head. Picture is here. But the noun gave birth to the verb, which first meant to hit a person with a maul and, by the 17th century, to beat, bruise, maltreat or knock about a person. By the 20th century only this meaning of the verb is attested. From 1991, "The culprit was so badly mauled by the trooper that he was left for dead." Whenever you think of things mauling other things, think of the mallet-shaped weapon. That is what gave it birth.

Let's digress for a moment on another such word, but referring to a dagger: poniard. The word first appeared in the French early in the 16th century, and came into Egnlish in the 1530s to describe a small, slim dagger. It may originally be derived from the Latin pugnus, which means a fight or war. Ben Jonson could write in 1601: "Let your poyneard maintaine your defence thus.." By the end of the 16th century the word also became a verb: "He was all to be poynyarded in the Senate house," meant that he was to stabbed to death with a poniard. Which comes first, the verb or the noun? Here it is cleary the noun which has supremacy.

Flail

Another two-handed weapon of choice in the Middle Ages was the flail. But, as with the maul, it first was used in a non-military context. It was an instrument used for threshing corn by hand, consisting of a wooden staff or handle, at the end of which a shorter and stouter pole or club is hung as to swing freely. Here is the picture of the weapon. It consists of a spiked rod or ball suspended from the haft by a chain. It is very large and dangerous, designed to crush and puncture, and requires both hands to wield it. It is said to be similar to the "morning star." This is the euphemistic label for a one-handed blunt instrument consists of a mace and ball and chain. It can have more than one ball attached to the haft. Here is the picture. Because the 'morning star' looks like the aspergillum, with which the priest sprinkled holy water, it is also called the "holy water sprinkler." How our lives are ruled by euphemisms! Though the word "morning star" first came into English in 1535, with Coverdale's translation of Job 38 ["Where wast thou when the mornynge starres gave me prayse?"], it only became associated with the weapon in the late 17th century. A 20th century history of the Middle Ages tells us that "The halberd...was superseded by the morning star, a five-foot club studded with spikes." Here is an article, with a few pictures, on the halberd. It seems that his description of the morning star, however, doesn't emphasize the lose-hanging chain with spiked balls. Oh, well.

Back to flail. The verb "to strike with or as with a flail" originated in the late 16th century. Finally, its figurative usage, which is most familiar to us today, emerged in the late 19th century. It means "to move in the manner of a flail," i.e., in a way where things are revolving, going from side to side without any seeming pattern. "Carlyle...is flailing about him in the same one-sided magnificently unreasonable way that you know."

Conclusion--A Flamberge

A flamberge is usually just defined as a sword, but if we dig a bit more deeply an interesting picture arises. Here is the picture. It is described as a large sword which requires two hands to wield. But "its most notable feature is the flamboyant shape of its blade, which is curved radically, as if it were aflame." Now we are getting somewhere. Here is another picture, which speaks of the shimmering or curved blade along with another word I didn't know--ricasso. A ricasso, derived from the Italian, is the part of the blade of a sword that is next to the hilt. From 1885: "We have adopted the French word pas d'ane, and we may as well likewise, for want of a better, adopt the Italian word 'ricasso,' used to designate that part of the blad between the cup guard and the quillions of the Italian foils and duelling swords." Quillions? A quillion is either of two arms forming the cross-guard of a sword or dagger.

Back to flamberge. It thus has a curved and "flamboyant" shape. The French word flamboyer is related to flambe or "flame," and was originally an architectural term meaning "characterized by waved lines of contrary flexure in flame-like forms." It was a style prevalent in France in the 15th and 16th centuries. Thus, the flamberge has a sword with these waved or flamboyant lines. The waved lines remind you of a fire or flame. I will never use the adjective "flamboyant" in the same way again.

Now that I have introduced a few terms, let's now focus on lots of words--to describe daggers and other things.

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