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spontoon

[spon-toon]
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noun
  1. a shafted weapon having a pointed blade with crossbar at its base, used by infantry officers in the 17th and 18th centuries.
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Origin of spontoon

1590–1600; < French esponton < Italian spuntone, equivalent to s- ex-1 + puntone kind of weapon (literally, pointed object) (punt(o) point + -one augmentative suffix)
Also called half-pike.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for spontoon

Historical Examples

  • Lady Emily is to be your nurse, and Spontoon and I your attendants.

    Waverley

    Sir Walter Scott

  • We have taken measures to exclude all servants but Spontoon, who is as true as steel.'

    Waverley

    Sir Walter Scott

  • The wolves which had been feasting on these carcasses were very fat, and so gentle that one of them was killed with a spontoon.

  • Spontoon' (to an elderly military-looking servant out of livery),'take away these things, and answer the bell yourself, if I ring.

  • I must send Spontoon to see what she is about; he will find her out among the old regimental connections.

British Dictionary definitions for spontoon

spontoon

noun
  1. a form of halberd carried by some junior infantry officers in the 18th and 19th centuries
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Word Origin

C18: from French esponton, from Italian spuntone, from punto point
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012