cuirasse

See also: cuirassé

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French cuirasse.

Noun

cuirasse (countable and uncountable, plural cuirasses)

1. (pedology) The armour-like crust that forms upon the exposure of a lateritic soil profile.
2. Alternative form of cuirass (“breasplate”)
   • 1973, George Vernadsky, Kievan Russia, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 193:

     As to the equipment of the Russian warrior of the period, his armor consisted of a helmet, a cuirasse, and a shield; and his standard weapons were the sword and the spear; bows and arrows were also used, […]

   • 2013, St'phane Thion, French Armies of the Thirty Years' War, LRT Editions, →ISBN, page 52:

     […] now had a lighter armour called three-quarter armour, comprising a cuirasse, jointed elements protecting the shoulders, arms and the front of the thighs, a doublet protecting the ...

   • 2017, Nora M. Heimann, Joan of Arc in French Art and Culture (1700?855): From Satire to Sanctity, Routledge, →ISBN:

     In Boilly's illustration, the Maid appears clad in a dress with a long skirt and puffed and slashed sleeves, a whiteplumed hat, a hauberk (or mail tunic) and a cuirasse (armor for the breast and back). She stands with her sword upheld ...

Related terms

• cuirassement

Anagrams

• Sauciers, eucrasis, sauciers, scauries, uricases

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɥi.ʁas/

Etymology 1

From Old French cuirace, probably borrowed from Old Occitan coirassa, or Italian corazza, or Old Aragonese cuyraça, from Late Latin coriacea (vestis) (“leather (garment)”), from coriaceus, ultimately from Latin corium, and probably influenced by cuir in French. Doublet of coriace.

Noun

cuirasse f (plural cuirasses)

1. breastplate (piece of armour covering the chest and sometimes the back)
2. (zoology) armour (protective plates covering some lizards and fish)
3. (nautical) armour, armour plate (metal plating covering a ship for protection)

Verb

cuirasse

1. inflection of cuirasser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular present imperative

Etymology 2

From cuirer.

Verb

cuirasse

1. first-person singular imperfect subjunctive of cuirer

Further reading

• “cuirasse”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• creusais, sécurisa, sucerais