brasset

English

Etymology

Attested since at least 1676 for arm-armour (see brassard). Application to helmets dates to at least the 1840s, of obscure origin, perhaps a misinterpretation: an early mention in Alphonso Wood's 1845 Class-book of Botany defines it broadly ("Eng. brasset signifies a helmet or target", i.e. shield), and around this time antiquarians spread mistaken definitions of several other armor terms (e.g. manefaire, passguard).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹæs.ət/, /ˈbɹæs.ɛt/

Noun

brasset (plural brassets)

1. Alternative form of brassard (“armour for the arm”)
   • 1737, Cornelis de Bruyn, Travels Into Muscovy, Persia and Part of the East-Indies [...] Together with Remarks on the Travels of Sir John Chardin and Mr. Kempfer, page 159:

     Under their veſts they had coats of mail and braſſets, and little morions in form of caps upon their heads, with viſors; and were perfectly well dreſſed […]

   • 1803 February, “Description of the Armour of the Mamluks”, in The Universal Magazine, volume 112, page 113:

     Figure 21 is another defensive arm, consisting of a brasset, with its gantlet.

   • 1811, Anne of Brittany: An Historical Romance, page 99:

     The duke rushed between them, and aimed a stroke at the assailant's helmet, who parried the blow; and the sabre, which had been directed against the Marshal de Rieux, fell on the arm of the Duke of Orleans. It pierced his brasset, and the blood flowed from the wound: his sword fell from his powerless grasp.

   • 1845, Menella Bute Smedley, Lays and ballads from English history etc., by S.M., page 181:

     A breastplate; to which were generally added the gorget or collar around the throat, the back-piece, and brassets or sleeves, forming altogether a complete vest of steel covering the upper part of the body.

   • 1864, Paul Féval, “Working in the Dark”, in The St. James's Magazine, volume 11, number 1, page 115:

     This object was a brasset of Milan, or, in less technical language, a long gauntlet, composed of the glove and wrist-plate, articulated together, and of the iron sheath intended to cover the fore-arm.

   • 1884, W.S. Gilbert, Princess Ida, or, Castle Adamant:

     These brassets, truth to tell, May look uncommon well, But in a fight They're much too tight, They're like a lobster shell!

   • 1895, Montague Rhodes James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Fitzwilliam Museum, page 165:

     He handles a brasset: a visored helmet and sword lie on the ground.

   • 1953, Lyon Sprague De Camp, The Continent Makers: And Other Tales of the Viagens:

     After some fumbling he got rid of the brassets on his forearms and their attached gauntlets, and then the cuirass with its little chain sleeves.

2. (historical) A casque or armour covering for the head; a helmet.
   • 1866, Digby Pilot Starkey, The Dole of Malaga: an Episode of History Dramatised, page 138:

     2nd Arm. [...] Enlighten me, good Andalusian, in like fashion as thou bringest out the polish upon thy noble master's gold-inlaid lambrequins [helmet-draperies]. 1st Arm. [...] I will reveal to thee why I scrub this harness with a joyful spirit. It is because it will have to stand no rougher blows than sun-strokes [...]; whereas there were times when it would go to my heart to expend pumice, emery, and wash-leather upon it. Now, see this dint here—not in the back, idle Catalan, but here, betwixt the brasset and hauberk.

   • 1877, Charles Wareing E. Bardsley, John Lexley's troubles - Volume 1, page 96:

     Oh, that's a head-piece, called a casque; but they've lots o ' names for it — such like as 'morion,' or 'brasset,' or 'helmet.' That's what they call the vizard; they breathed through them perforated holes.

   • 1879, Albert Gallatin Mackey, “Knighthood”, in An encyclopædia of freemasonry and its kindred sciences, page 400:

     The manner of arming a newly-made knight was first to put on the spurs, then the coat-of-mail, the cuirass, the brasset or casque, and the gauntlets.

Anagrams

• Basters, Be stars, Sterbas, basters, bestars, breasts