Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Same as
baslard .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A short sword or dagger, worn in the fifteenth century.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a type of heavy dagger popular in the 14th and 15th centuries.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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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Examples
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Thirteen of the beneficed clergy were altogether bookless, though several of them possessed the baselard or dagger which church councils had forbidden in vain for centuries past; four more had only their breviary.
Old English Libraries; The Making, Collection and Use of Books During the Middle Ages 1911
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And thanne William Walworth, maire of London, drewe his baselard and smot
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