Size or Shape
Terms classifying swords as "great", "long", "broad", "bastard", "small", "short" or "two-handed" have different meanings in different contexts and may be ambiguous.
In the Elizabethan context the size of swords from smallest to biggest would be as follows:
- Short-sword (arming sword), backsword --> bastard sword, broadsword (two-handed sword) --> long sword --> two-hander ("great sword" although this is a recently coined term).
In the German context the size of swords from smallest to biggest would be:
- Katzbalger, Degen --> Reitschwert, Schwert (langes Schwert) --> Rappier --> Bidenhänder.
In the French context the size of swords from smallest to biggest would be:
- Épée --> épée batarde (épée de passot), espadon --> longue épée --> épée à deux mains.
In the Italian context the size of swords from smallest to biggest would be:
- Spada --> spada bastarda, spadone --> spada lunga --> spada a due mani.
Read more about this topic: Classification Of Swords
Famous quotes containing the words size and/or shape:
“It is very considerably smaller than Australia and British Somaliland put together. As things stand at present there is nothing much the Texans can do about this, and ... they are inclined to shy away from the subject in ordinary conversation, muttering defensively about the size of oranges.”
—Alex Atkinson, British humor writer. repr. In Present Laughter, ed. Alan Coren (1982)
“If I commit suicide, it will not be to destroy myself but to put myself back together again. Suicide will be for me only one means of violently reconquering myself, of brutally invading my being, of anticipating the unpredictable approaches of God. By suicide, I reintroduce my design in nature, I shall for the first time give things the shape of my will.”
—Antonin Artaud (1896–1948)