pauldron
/ˈpɔl.dɹən/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.03 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A component of plate armor that protects the shoulder, generally covering more than a spaulder, also protecting the armpit and overlapping with other armor over the upper chest and back.
Example Sentences
- "Upon the espaulieres are placed pauldrons, also ridged, with the edges turned up, so as to form the prototypes of pass-guards."
- "[…] a pair of pauldrons with the light horizontal bar which in later years developed into the high neckguard of the sixteenth century; numbers of gauntlets, visors of helmets, and other pieces, the handling of which is a sheer joy […]"
- "[…] the elbow cop or coudiere for the elbow; and the rerebrace or arriere-bras for the upper arm. The shoulder cop, pauldron or epauliere which covered the shoulder, and often a large part of the breast and back, was usually considered a part of the arm guard."
- "This rim involved a raised rolled edge on the rerebrace that was inserted into a raised lip on the lower lame of the pauldron."
Etymology
From earlier pouldron, poleron, paleron from Middle English polron, palerns, pollerons. This may have been borrowed from Old French paleron, which derives from elements corresponding to French pale (“blade (of a shovel, etc)”) + -eron but was semantically influenced by Old French espaule (“shoulder”) (whence French épaule). Alternatively, some references derive the Middle English word from Middle French espalleron, espauleron, from Old French espaule. Although a form with d at the end is found in Middle English (polrondys, compare Early Modern English polrynges c. 1550), the interpolation of a d between the l and the r dates to the 1500s; the d, and the preference since the early 1800s for the spelling and pronunciation with paul- rather than poul-, may be due to the influence of spaulder.