glaive

Forms

glaive m (plural glaives)^[1] Old French glaive, glavie, gleive, gleve.^[2] The form gladie “lance” of the late 10th century (Vie de saint Léger) is a direct borrowing of the Latin word.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French glaive, inherited from Latin gladius (“sword”), with an irregular development of the ending whose origin is disputed.^[3][6][4] The regular outcome of the Latin word was glai, which survived in Old French as the name of the glaïeul (gladiolus) and in Old Franco-Provençal with the meaning “sword”.^[3][4]

J. Brüch, followed by the FEW, explains the French word by a blend of the Latin word with Late Latin glavus, attested in the 4th–5th centuries and itself a blend of the Latin word for sword and clāva (“club”), the cudgel recruits used in weapons drill, the Old French forms glavie and glaive coming from it.^[3][4] Fouché instead traces the word to a Proto-Brythonic *klafido type, from Proto-Celtic *kladyo (which also gave the Latin word), brought to Gaul from about 460 and altered to *glafido under the influence of the Latin word.^[4] Bloch and Wartburg suggest that the ending may have been changed to keep the name of the sword apart from its Old French homonym meaning “joy”.^[7]

Cognate with Old Occitan glavi and glazi, Catalan glavi, Portuguese glavio and Italian gladio.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire (1121–1134), translating the psalm verse tradentur in manus gladii, it means a sword;^[3] the Grand Robert and the GLLF give “lance, javelin” as the first sense, and Littré says it usually meant the knight's lance.^[10][5][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old French the sword stood for its work: glaive meant slaughter by the sword or punishment by it (about 1135, Couronnement de Louis), an epidemic or calamity (about 1210), and figuratively a heartbreak or sharp pain (about 1165, Benoît de Sainte-Maure).^[3][4] By metonymy it also named a soldier armed with a lance (14th century).^[4][2]

Classical rhetoric made it a symbol: of destruction (1642, Corneille), of armed force and war (1690, Furetière's puissance du glaive), and of divine and human justice (le glaive de Dieu, 1683, Bossuet, le glaive de la justice, before 1681).^[5][3][4] Today it is a historical word for the double-edged sword of antiquity and a literary word for these symbols.^[11]

English borrowed it from Old French in the late 13th century as glaive, used of various long-shafted weapons.^[12]

Timeline

• Late 10th century – Gladie “lance”, taken straight from Latin, appears in the Vie de saint Léger.^[3][4]
• 1121–1134 – Philippe de Thaon's Bestiaire has glaive “sword”.^[3]
• c. 1135 – The Couronnement de Louis uses it for death by the sword.^[3]
• c. 1165 – Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses it for heartbreak, sharp pain.^[3][4]
• c. 1210 – Recorded in the sense “epidemic, calamity”.^[4]
• Late 13th century – English borrows it as glaive.^[12]
• 1642 – Corneille makes it a symbol of destruction.^[5][4]
• 1690 – Furetière records puissance du glaive, armed force.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A double-edged sword used for both cutting and thrusting; the Roman gladius.^[11][3][1]
2. (literary) The sword as a symbol of war, of divine justice or of judicial power: le glaive de Dieu, le glaive et la balance.^[11][9]
3. (literary) War, armed combat.^[9]

Related words

• glaïeul
• Latin gladius
• English glaive

Usage notes

The biblical saying qui frappera du glaive périra par le glaive (Matthew 26:52) is quoted by Littré and the TLFi.^[9][3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 4, 145b
7. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d e Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com