hauberk

English

[1] Hauberk, 15th century

Alternative forms

• hawberk

Etymology

From Middle English hauberk, from Old French hauberc, from Frankish *halsaberg (“neck-cover”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhɔːbɜː(ɹ)k/

Noun

hauberk (plural hauberks)

1. A coat of mail; especially, the long coat of mail of the European Middle Ages, as contrasted with the habergeon, which is shorter and sometimes sleeveless.
   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 14:

     The hauberk was a complete covering of mail from head to foot. It consisted of a hood, joined to a jacket with sleeves, breeches, stockings and shoes of double chain mail, to which were added gauntlets of the same construction.

   • 1896, William Morris, chapter 29, in The Well at the World's End‎^[1], volume II, London, New York, and Bombay: Longmans, Green, and Co., book IV, page 258:

     Ursula wore that day a hauberk under her gown, and was helmed with a sallet; and because of her armour she rode upon a little horse.

   • 1909, Charles Henry Ashdown, European Arms & Armor, page 65:

     The hauberk was to the Norman what the byrnie was to the Saxon, the chief method of bodily defence.

2. (less common) A similar shirt of scale armour, plate, leather, or other armor material.
   • 1898, John Starkie Gardner, Armour in England from the Earliest Times to the Seventeenth Century, page 40:

     The habergeon is the mail in this case, and the hauberk is of plate or splint armour, while the cote-armoure is the surcoat, possibly thickly padded, as in the still-existing surcoat of the Black Prince.

   • 1929, Yale University, The Excavations at Dura-Europos: Conducted by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters; Preliminary Report of 1st- Season of Work ..., page 451:

     One, which was destined later to usurp the field completely, consisted of a sleeved mail or scale hauberk, probably of eastern, Iranian, origin, descending to the knees.

   • 2001, Angeliki E. Láiou, Dumbarton Oaks Professor of Byzantine History Angeliki E Laiou, Angeliki E. Laiou, Roy P. Mottahedeh, The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, Dumbarton Oaks (→ISBN), page 277:

     In Demetrios ' portrait, the saint wears a lamellar hauberk and a long surcoat over ornately patterned leggings. The painter has added an unusual element to the composition - a scarf tied around the horse's head […]

   • 2008, Robyn Young, Crusade, Penguin, →ISBN, page 460:

     Because the call to arms had come so quickly, he'd not had time to don his chain-mail armor, only a light, plate hauberk that covered his shoulders and torso.

   • 2012, Martin Parece, The Cor Chronicles Volumes I, II & III, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 240:

     The plate hauberk did not restrict his movements in the slightest, and he didn't feel weighed down as he did in Taraq'nok's chain mail.

   • 2014, Martin V. Parece II, Gods and Steel: The Cor Chronicles, Vol. IV, Parece Publishing, page 77:

     Fitted perfectly for her, it consisted of a simple plate hauberk and legguards, plate armguards and sabatons with chain mail underneath. She had discarded the chain mail early, much to Parol's consternation, […]

Coordinate terms

• byrnie, habergeon, haubergeon

Translations

A coat of mail

• Bulgarian: ризница f (riznica)
• Catalan: ausberg (ca) m
• French: haubert (fr) m
• Middle English: hauberk
• Persian: گبر (fa) sg (gabr), خفتان (fa) sg (xeftān)
• Russian: кольчуга (ru) f (kolʹčuga)

Middle English

Alternative forms

• auberc, haberke, hamberk, hauberc, hauberghe, haubrec, haubrecke, haubrek, hawbarke, hawbergh, hawberk, hawberke

Etymology

From Old French hauberc, from Early Medieval Latin (h)alsbergum, from Frankish *halsaberg.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈau̯bɛrk/, /ˈaːbɛrk/, /-rɛk/

Noun

hauberk (plural hauberkes)

1. hauberk (coat of mail armour)

Related terms

• hauberjoun

Descendants

• English: hauberk

References

• “hauberk, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.