Halbert

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A historical weapon characterized by a long shaft and a sharp blade that is designed for both piercing and hacking motions in combat situations
2. A long-handled weapon from the medieval era featuring a pointed spear tip combined with an axe blade for close and ranged fighting
3. A type of combat tool with a wooden shaft topped by a sharpened blade used historically for both stabbing and slicing foes

Etymology: The "beard" in this weapon's history is a real one. The name comes from Middle High German "helmbarte," a broad-axe with a handle, built from "halm," meaning handle, and "barte," meaning hatchet. That second element traces back to a Proto-Germanic word for a broadaxe, "bardaz," which was literally "beard," probably named for the curved, bearded edge of the blade. So a weapon that stabs with a spike and slices with a hook was named after the shape of an axe's cutting edge. The word reached English through French and Italian. Middle French took it as "hallebarde," and Italian had "alabarda," which likely shows the same borrowing path. English adopted the word in the form "halberd," recorded from 1495, and "halbert" is a variant spelling of the same term.