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''falchion'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''falchion'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260606185347-00-⌔

falchion - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

falchion (plural falchions)

  • (also attributively) A somewhat curved, single-edged medieval sword of European origin, with the cutting edge on its convex side, whose design is reminiscent of the Persian scimitar and the Chinese dao.1
    • ✤ *I haue seene the day, with my good biting Faulchion *2
    • ✤ Thy Chamber vvith Ambroſiall odors breatheth,/Nevv loues and true loues vnto them that entreateth,/And furious Mars made milde his Faulcheon ſheatheth/At thy delicious aſpect: […]3
    • ✤ Even when the battle-roar was deep,/With dauntless heart he hewed his way,/Mid splintering lance and falchion -sweep,/And still was heard his warrior-lay; […]4
    • ✤ The Jester wore his usual fantastic habit, but late accidents had led him to adopt a good cutting falchion, instead of his wooden sword, with a targe to match it; […]5
  • (obsolete)1 A billhook.1

Verb

falchion (third-person singular simple present falchions, present participle falchioning, simple past and past participle falchioned)

  • (obsolete, rare, transitive)6 Attack with a falchion.6

Etymology

From Middle English fauchoun, from Old French fauchon (cognate with Italian falcione), from Vulgar Latin ﹡falciōnem, from Latin falx.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: fôlʹ(t)shən, IPA: /ˈfɔːl.(t)ʃən/,7
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • (US) IPA: /ˈfɔl.(t)ʃən/
    • (cot–caught merger) IPA: /ˈfɑl.(t)ʃən/

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. “falchion, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989) ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 309: ↩

  3. 1607 February 12 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [Barnabe Barnes], The Divils Charter: A Tragædie Conteining the Life and Death of Pope Alexander the Sixt. […], London: […] G[eorge] E[ld] for Iohn Wright, […], published 1607, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii, signature E2, verso: ↩

  4. 1816, [Walter Scott], “Letter IX. Paul to His Sister Margaret. The Troubadour.”, in Paul’s Letters to His Kinsfolk, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, and John Murray, →OCLC, page 211: ↩

  5. 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter X, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 242: ↩

  6. “†ˈfalchion, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989) ↩ ↩2

  7. “falchion, n.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989) ↩

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Secondary

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