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RAPIER

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 909 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RAPIER , the name given to two distinct types of See also:

sword. Originally the " rapier " (Fr. rapiere) was a See also:long two-edged and pointed weapon with a wide See also:cup hilt, used together with the See also:dagger in See also:fencing and duelling chiefly as a thrusting weapon, the cut taking a secondary position. This was the typical duelling sword of the 16th and 17th centuries. In the 18th See also:century the " small-sword " took its See also:place; this was a pointed weapon only, the " cut " having entirely dropped out, and the dagger being discarded. The word rapier is of doubtful origin. Du Cange (Glossarium, s. v. " Rapparia ") quotes an example of the word used as an See also:adjective to qualify espee as See also:early as 1474, and gives as a conjectural derivation Gr. pairlEely=See also:Lat. caedere, to cut. See also:Skeat (Etym. Did., 1910) follows the See also:suggestion of See also:Diez that rapiere is from raspiere, a rasper or See also:poker, and was a name given in contempt by the old cut-and-thrust fencers to the new weapon. See also:Spanish has raspadera, a raker, and there are several 16th and 17th century quotations alluding to the See also:con-tempt with which the rapier was greeted, and to its Spanish origin (see FENCING and SWORD).

End of Article: RAPIER

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