badelaire
English
editEtymology
editBorrowed from French badelaire, baudelaire, a corruption of earlier (14th century) baselard.
Noun
editbadelaire (plural badelaires)
- (now chiefly historical) A short sword with a heavy, curved blade and S-shaped quillions. [from 17th c.]
- 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter I, in The Shadow of the Torturer (The Book of the New Sun; 1), New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 12:
- I heard the ring of steel on stone, as if someone had struck one of the grave markers with a badelaire.
- (heraldry) This sword used as a heraldic charge.