Byrnie
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A short chain mail shirt, covering from the upper arms to the upper thighs. historical
"[…] those that walked armed before the Witches’ booths, six in company, harnessed as for battle in byrnies of shining bronze, with greaves and shields of bronze and helms that glanced in the sun."
- 2 a long (usually sleeveless) tunic of chain mail formerly worn as defensive armor wordnet
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"[…] those that walked armed before the Witches’ booths, six in company, harnessed as for battle in byrnies of shining bronze, with greaves and shields of bronze and helms that glanced in the sun."
Etymology
From Middle English brinie, burne (whence also, without metathesis, obsolete English brinie), from Old Norse brynja. Cognates include Old English byrne, Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌾𐍉 (brunjō) (whence Old Church Slavonic брънѩ (brŭnję)), German Brünne, French broigne.
Related phrases
More for "byrnie"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.