Baselard
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A type of heavy dagger popular in the 14th and 15th centuries.
"1380s: "Sir John and Sir Geoffrey hath a girdle of silver, a baselard or a ballok knyf with buttons overgilt." (Piers Plowman)"
Example
More examples"1380s: "Sir John and Sir Geoffrey hath a girdle of silver, a baselard or a ballok knyf with buttons overgilt." (Piers Plowman)"
Etymology
From Old French baselard, basilard (early 14th century), in English from the later 14th century. Occurs in many spelling variants, including badelaire, baudelaire, Latinized badelare, bazelare, basalardus, balafardus, balasardus, etc. Probably in origin a corruption of German Basler (as pasler also attested from the early 14th century), probably short for Basler messer "knife of (made in, typical of) Basel".
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.