spontoon

American  

[spon-toon] / spɒnˈtun /

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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spontoon British  

/ spɒnˈtuːn /

noun

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

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Etymology

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)

Example Sentences

Spontoon, spon-tōōn′, n. a weapon somewhat like a halberd, which used to be carried by certain officers of foot.

From Project Gutenberg

He was now a solemn stalking-horse, bearing a rigid, buckram-mailed showman, whose only sound or movement resided in the plates of his armour, or his lath sword or gilded spontoon.

From Project Gutenberg

These articles, with our fur robes and blankets, a fish-spear, and a spontoon which I discovered, were all I dared attempt to save.

From Project Gutenberg

The officers, I remember, carried what was formerly used in our service, a long sort of pole, with a head like a halberd, and called, I believe, a "spontoon."

From Project Gutenberg

The point of the spontoon was as steel crusted o'er; the ax of the halberd might have come from a boucherie; the blade of the "Partizan" resembled a great leaf at autumn-time.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• nightstick
• truncheon