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halberd

UK/ˈhælbəd/US/ˈhæl.bɚd/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,690 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: halberds

A halberd is a weapon that is part axe and part spear. Carry a halberd, a halberd point, ranks of halberds.

The head does three jobs at once: an axe blade to cut, a spike to thrust, and a hook to pull a rider off a horse. The Swiss Guard at the Vatican still carry them, which is where most people have seen one.

, Lucas, 1534-1584 (viaf)47561729 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of halberd

  1. 1nounhalberdA weapon that is part axe and part spear.C2

    “The palace guards stood at the gate holding tall halberds.”

halberd is a weapon.

Where it comes from

Middle High German helmbarte is a handle plus a broad axe, reaching English through Italian and French.

  1. Proto-Germanic

    *helmô — handle

  2. Middle High German

    helmbarte — broad-axe with handle

  3. Italian

    alabarda

  4. Middle French

    hallebarde

  5. English, today

    halberd

Built from

  • barte · Middle Low German — hatchet
  • *bardaz · Proto-Germanic — broadax

1495 Middle French hallebarde, from Italian alabarda, from Middle High German helmbarte (“broad-axe with handle”), from halm, from Proto-Germanic helmô (“handle”) + barte (“hatchet”), from bardaz (“broadax”), literally "beard."

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

halberd in the wild

  • The hook on weapons such as the halberd was used for pulling or grappling tactics, especially against horsemen.

    Polearm

  • Bills, picks, dane axes, spears, glaives, guandaos, pudaos, pikes, poleaxes, halberds, harpoons, sovnyas, naginatas, bardiches, war scythes, yari and lances are all varieties of polearms.

    Polearm

  • A halberd (also called halbard or halbert) is a two-handed polearm that was in prominent use in Europe from the 13th to 16th centuries.

    Halberd

  • The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft.

    Halberd

  • The bardiche differs from the halberd in having neither a hook at the back nor a spear point at the top.

    Bardiche

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.