English

glaive on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

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

Anagrams

• vagile

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

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
   • circa 1170, Wace, Le Roman de Rou:

     Son glaive i a li Dus lessié

     The Duke left his sword there.

Descendants

• English: glaive (borrowed)
• French: glaive

References

• (fr) Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (glaive)
• glaive on the Anglo-Norman On-Line Hub

See also

• espee
• lance