glaive

English

glaive on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French glaive, from Latin gladius (“sword”).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: glāv, IPA(key): /ɡleɪv/
  • Rhymes: -eɪv

Noun

glaive (plural glaives)

  1. A weapon formerly used, consisting of a large blade fixed on the end of a pole, whose edge was on the outside curve.
    • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 52.:
      The Welch Glaive is a kind of bill, sometimes reckoned among the pole axes.
  2. A light lance with a long sharp-pointed head.
  3. (poetically or loosely) A sword.
    • Edmund Spenser:
      The glaive which he did wield.
    • 1913, Francis Thompson, The Works of Francis Thompson, volume II (Poems), London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, OCLC 832969228, page 124:
      Yea, that same awful angel with the glaive / Which in disparadising orbit swept / Lintel and pilaster and architrave

Translations

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Anagrams

French

Etymology

From Old French glaive, from Latin gladius (“sword”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ɡlɛv/

Noun

glaive m (plural glaives)

  1. gladius, short sword
  2. (figuratively) sword

Further reading

Old French

Alternative forms

  • gladies (10th century)
  • gleve
  • gleyve

Etymology

Probably from an original *glede (from Latin gladius) with influence from Gaulish gladebo (“sword”). Both terms are ultimately from Proto-Celtic *kladiwos (“sword”). Alternatively, the d in *glede that had come to be pronounced as /ð/ in Old French may have been fronted to /v/ (perhaps with the additional influence of the aforementioned Gaulish term.)

Noun

glaive m (oblique plural glaives, nominative singular glaives, nominative plural glaive)

  1. sword

Descendants

See also

References

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