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quillon

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 15 January 2025

Etymology

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The hilt of a sword from Sweden dating to 1650.[n 1] The quillon is either the entire crossguard which is the bar perpendicular to the blade and the handle, or either of the two arms of the guard.

Unadapted borrowing from French quillon (literally “little ninepin”), from quille (“club; ninepin, skittle”) (from the similar appearance) + -on (diminutive suffix).[1] Quille is derived from Middle High German kegel (“club”),[2] from Old High German kegil, from Proto-West Germanic *kagil (“pile, pole, stake; peg, pin”), from *kagō (“bush, shrub”) + *-il (diminutive suffix).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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quillon (plural quillons) (swords, chiefly historical)

  2. Synonym of crossguard (“a metal bar fixed between, and at right angles to, the blade and the handle of a sword or other bladed weapon that stops an opponent's similar weapon from sliding along the blade and injuring the hand of the person wielding the sword”)
    Synonym: guard
    Holonym: hilt
    Comeronyms: grip, pommel, ricasso
    • 1921, George Younghusband, “The Regalia—continued”, in The Jewel House: An Account of the Many Romances Connected with the Royal Regalia […], London: Herbert Jenkins […], →OCLC, page 53:
      The Sword of State which is carried before the King at the opening of Parliament is quite a different weapon. It is a long, two-handed sword, with a gold hilt and quillion, and is encased in a crimson velvet scabbard. […] The quillion of the sword is formed of an elongated lion on one side, and a similarly maltreated unicorn on the other.
    • 1965, Harold L[eslie] Peterson, “Officers’ Swords”, in The American Sword 1775–1945, revised edition, Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, published 2003, →ISBN, page 90:
      The guard [of the cavalry officers' saber] consists of a knuckle-bow bent in the stirrup pattern. The bow gradually expands until it makes it turn up towards the blade. At that point it swells rapidly to form a broad quillon, and a branch swings out in a full semi-circle on the obverse side, joining the quillon again at its tip above the blade. A single bar connects the branch and the quillon opposite the upper edge of the grips.
    • 2005, Julian Stockwin, chapter 2, in Tenacious, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 30:
      'You will remark the short quillion on this piece,' he added, touching the sword crosspiece. 'More to your sea tastes, I believe. And the grips—for a fighting sword we have ivory, filigree—'
  4. (chiefly in the plural) Either of the two arms of a crossguard.
    Holonyms: crossguard, guard < hilt
    • 1884, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “The Sword: What is It?”, in The Book of the Sword, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 125:
      The guard against the cut is technically called the cross[-]guard […]. This section is composed of one or more bars projecting from the hilt between tang and blade, and receiving the edge of the adversary's weapon should it happen to glance or to glide downwards. The quillons may be either straight[…]—that is, disposed at right angles—or curved […].
    • 1885, Egerton Castle, “The Sword during the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth Centuries”, in Schools and Masters of Fence: From the Middle Ages to the Eighteenth Century […], London: George Bell and Sons, […], →OCLC, page 233:
      With regard to the quillons, it was obvious that with slight alteration they might be made to protect the hand very much more than they did in their straight condition. Accordingly, one branch was soon curved towards the pummel so as to protect the knuckles, and in such a case, for the sake of symmetry, the other branch was turned similarly towards the point.
    • 1895, W. Kerr Smith, “Armour. A Paper Communicated to the Thoresby Society”, in The Publications of the Thoresby Society, volume IV (Miscellanea […]), Leeds, West Yorkshire: [Thoresby Society], →OCLC, page 123:
      [T]he simpler form of sword, with plain quillions, gives way to the more graceful rapier, or the English broadsword, with circular hand-guard.
    • 1938, Charles ffoulkes, E[dward] C[ampbell] Hopkinson, “Swords of the Army [Infantry]”, in Sword, Lance & Bayonet: A Record of the Arms of the British Army & Navy, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, page 66:
      It should be pointed out that the true "claymore" or Claidheamh-mor was a two-handed sword with plain quillons sloped towards the blade.
    • 1981, Rosemary Sutcliff, “The Sword in the Stone”, in The Sword and the Circle: King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton, →ISBN, page 27:
      Then Arthur took the sword two-handed by its quillions. There was golden writing on the stone, but he did not stop to read it. The sword seemed to thrill under his touch as a harp thrills in response to its master's hand.
    • 1995, Nick Evangelista, “QUILLON”, in The Encyclopedia of the Sword, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 486:
      The quillons may either be straight or curved. When they bend upward toward the blade tip, they are called à antennas. […] The quillons may exist as the only form of guard on a sword. They may be joined by a group of counterguard bars, or they may be set under a cup or shell guard. While serving mainly as a hand protection and incidentally for wrapping the fingers around to increase one's grip strength, the quillons could also, on occasion, be thrust into the face of an adversary.
    • 1997, Dale Anthony Girard, “The Sword and the Stage: An Introduction to the Theatrical Rapier”, in Actors on Guard: A Practical Guide for the Use of the Rapier and Dagger for Stage and Screen (A Theatre Arts Book), New York, N.Y.; London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 23:
      In the sixteenth century quillons were extended with the intent to displace or entangle the opponent's blade. The quillons were either straight as in the medieval swords, recurved in S-form or bent towards the blade. In some types of hilt one quillon was curved towards the pommel, serving as a guard for the knuckles.

Alternative forms

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Translations

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Notes

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  1. ^ From the collection of the Livrustkammaren (Royal Armoury) in Stockholm, Sweden.

References

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  1. ^ “quillon, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ “quillon, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Further reading

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French

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Etymology

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From Middle French quillon (literally “little ninepin”), from quille (“club; ninepin, skittle”) (from the similar appearance) + -on (diminutive suffix). By surface analysis, quille +‎ -on.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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quillon m (plural quillons)

  1. quillon (“either of the two arms of a crossguard”)

Further reading

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