Sweordplega

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Armed combat carried out with swords, as described in Old English poetry and chronicles
2. A clash of blades in battle, the fighting that takes place when warriors wield swords
3. The sport or business of fighting with swords, meaning sword-fighting in an early English context

Etymology: Old English "plega" covered a wide range of activity: play, sport, and also armed contest. Paired with "sweord" (sword), it produced a compound that meant a fight with swords, not a game with toy weapons. The word is a plain compound, built from two ordinary Old English elements. "Sweord" is inherited from Germanic and matches Old Norse "sverð" and German "Schwert." "Plega" comes from the verb "plegan," which gave Old English its sense of engaging in something, and it is the ancestor of modern "play." The compound is recorded only in Old English texts and did not pass into later English.