Noun: besague
| Singular | besague |
| Plural | besagues |
Sample Sentences
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These were clearly different from the besague (an axe with two edges) described in the Glossaries of Meyrick and Carpentier, in v. Besogium. [1840, Roxburghe Club, Ashmolean Museum, Illustrations of Ancient State and Chivalry: From Manuscripts Preserved in the Ashmolean Museum; with an Appendix, page 6:]
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Under Henry IV. appeared a large martel, or hammer, called the Besague, apparently intended more for throwing than combat. In the reign of Edward IV. are found garnished spears, having a head called a coronal, a vamplate, or ... [1828, Richard Thomson, Illustrations of the History of Great Britain, page 186:]
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The points or laces for attaching the besagues are clearly shown. In brasses the attachment is generally shown as a diamond-headed nut, but the attachment by points or laces just as the elbow caps are seen attached in various effigies ... [1907, The Archaeological Journal, page 22:]
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... to escape the inference that it was evolved solely to avoid the inevitable and unpalatable conclusion that the pouldrons on the Metropolitan armour, and incidentally either the besague or the entire Riggs shaffron, were forgeries. [1932, The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors:]
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But none approaches in completeness the axe in the Liverpool Museum, which besides possessing the greater part of its original octagonal haft, still retains the besague for the protection of the advanced hand of its wielder, […] [1935, J. T. Herbert Baily, The Connoisseur:]
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The principal varieties are as follows : (1) With circular besagues at elbow and shoulder. This type is generally, though not invariably, very small in size. (2) With circular besagues at the shoulder and 90° fan-shaped elbow-pieces . [1948, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, page 88:]
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The most conspicuous visual and formal element of the armour is the pair of besagues or roundels protecting the underarm area; these circular plates have sharp spikes that point to the viewer's right and catch the light in a dramatic way. [2010, Carolyn Springer, Armour and Masculinity in the Italian Renaissance, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 138:]
Nouns inflected like besague
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
From Middle English besague, besagu, besagew, from Old French besague, whence also English besagew (“rondel, armor protecting the armpit”), related to Latin bisacuta (Italian bisacuto (“double-edged”)) and besogium. Applied, in the Middle Ages, to a variety of medieval weapons or tools with two blades, edges, or faces, especially a double-bladed axe or war-hammer, but also to iron-headed cornuted staffs, clubs, or maces, spades, hoes, mattocks, and even knives. See: Middle English Nouns '
besague', English Nouns '
besagew', Latin Nouns '
bisacuta', Italian Nouns '
bisacuto'.