Classification of swords

The English-language terminology used in the classification of swords is imprecise, and has varied widely over time, with terms such as "broadsword", "long sword", "short-sword", and "two-handed sword" being used to group together weapons with no particular relation to one another. However in modern times many of these have been given specific meanings (although sometimes quite arbitrarily). Some of these terms originate contemporary with the weapon they refer to, others are modern or early modern terms used by antiquarians, curators, and modern-day sword enthusiasts for historical swords.

Terminology was further complicated by terms introduced (i.e. "hand-and-a-half sword", "single-handed sword", "Pappenheimer", "Walloon sword", "Sinclair Sabre", "Mortuary sword", "spada da lato", "town sword", etc.) or misinterpreted (i.e. bastard sword broadsword, rapier, estoc, flamberge, etc.) in the 19th century by antiquarians, and in 20th century pop culture (sword and sorcery, role playing games, video games, etc.). Also the addition of new terms to the mix such as "great sword", "zweihänder" (instead of Bidenhänder), and "cut-and-thrust sword". Historical European Martial Arts associations have turned the term spada da lato, a term that was coined by Italian curators, into "side-sword". Furthermore, there is a disregard for the use of the term broadsword by these associations. All these newly introduced or redefined sword terms add to the confusion of the matter.

The most well known systematic typology of blade types of the European medieval sword is the Oakeshott typology (although this is a modern classification and not a medieval one, and has many overlaps). Elizabethans used descriptive terms such as "short", "bastard", and "long" which emphasized the length of the blade, and "two-handed" for any sword that could be wielded as such.

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.

Great sword
These include the long swords in both the Middle Ages   and Renaissance, like the "outsized specimens" - between 90 cm and 120 cm - such as the Oakeshott type XIIIa or Oakeshott type XIIa. These swords can be wielded with either one hand or with two hands, but their grip may be designed specifically for one hand, two hands, or the “hand-and-half” grip where the off-hand grips the pommel, depending on the preference of the wielder.

The Scottish name Claymore (Gaelic claidheamh mor, lit. "great sword") can refer to either the longsword with a distinctive two-handed grip, or the basket-hilted sword developing from a rapier.

Long sword and bastard sword
These days, the term longsword most frequently refers to a late Medieval and Renaissance weapon designed for use with two hands. The German langes Schwert ("long sword") in 15th-century manuals did not necessarily denote a type of weapon, but the technique of fencing with both hands at the hilt.

Contemporary use of "long-sword" or "longsword" only resurfaces in the 2000s in the context of reconstruction of the German school of fencing, translating the German langes Schwert.

The French épée bâtarde as well as the English bastard sword originates in the 15th or 16th century, originally as having the general sense of "irregular sword or sword of uncertain origin". Qui n'étoit ni Françoise, ni Espagnole, ni proprement Lansquenette, mais plus grande que pas une de ces fortes épées ("[a sword] which was neither French, nor Spanish, nor properly Landsknecht [German], but longer than any of these sturdy swords.") Espée bastarde could also historically refer to a single-handed sword with a fairly long blade compared to other short swords.

Joseph Swetnam states that the bastard sword is a sword that is midway in length between a short-sword and a long sword, and Randall Cotgrave's definition seems to imply this as well. The French épée de passot, was also known as épée bâtarde (i.e. bastard sword) and also coustille à croix. (literally a cross-hilted blade), referred to a medieval single-handed sword optimized for thrusting The épée de passot was the sidearm of the franc-archers (French / Breton bowmen of the 15th and 16th centuries). The term passot comes from the fact that these swords passed (passaient) the length of a "normal" short-sword. The German term for a bastard sword was Reitschwert (literally a riding sword), "...in the early Renaissance the term bastard-sword was also sometimes used to refer to single-hand arming-swords with compound-hilts. A form of German arming sword with a bastard-style compound hilt was called a "Reitschwert" ("cavalry sword") or a "Degen" ("knight's sword")". The French definition of passot is the same as the definition given by Joseph Swetnam in regards to the bastard sword, "The Bastard Sword, the which Sword is something shorter than a long Sword, and yet longer than a Short sword.".

The Masters of Defence competition organised by Henry VIII in July 1540 listed two hande sworde, bastard sworde and longe sworde as separate items (as it should in Joseph Swetnam's context).

Antiquarian usage in the 19th century established the use of "bastard sword" as referring unambiguously to these large swords. However, George Silver and Joseph Swetnam refer to them merely as "two hande sworde". The term "hand-and-a-half sword" is modern (late 19th century). During the first half of the 20th century, the term "bastard sword" was used regularly to refer to this type of sword.

The Elizabethan long sword (c.f. George Silver and Joseph Swetnam) is a single-handed "cut-and-thrust" sword with a four foot long blade similar to the long rapier. "Let thy (long) Rapier or (long) Sword be foure foote at the least, and thy dagger two foote. Historical (15th to 16th century) terms for this type of sword included the Italian spada longa (lunga), and French longue épée.

The term longsword has also been used to refer to different kinds of sword depending on historical context:
 * Bidenhänder or two-hander, a late Renaissance sword of the 16th century Landsknechte, the longest sword of all;
 * the long "side sword" or "rapier" with a cutting edge (the Elizabethan long sword).

Broadsword
The basket-hilted sword was a military sword, termed "broad, big, large or great" in contrast with the smallsword.

So we thus have "broadsword" terms that have these meanings:
 * Claymore
 * basket-hilted sword
 * A sabre.

It must be noted, that the term broadsword was never used historically to describe the one-handed arming sword. The arming sword was wrongly labelled a broadsword by antiquarians as the medieval swords were similar in blade width to the military swords of the day (that were also sometimes labeled as broadswords) and broader than the dueling swords and ceremonial dress swords.

Long knife
Knives such as the seax and other blades of similar length - between 1 and 2 feet ( ˜ 30 cm and 60 cm) - are sometimes construed as “swords”. This is especially the case for weapons from antiquity that lack access to the technology for the high quality steel that is necessary for reliable swords of the length of a spatha or longer.


 * Iron Age swords
 * Seax, a tool and weapon, common in Northern Europe.
 * Gladius, an early ancient Roman blade
 * Xiphos, a double-edged, single-hand blade used by the ancient Greeks;
 * certain Renaissance era sidearms:
 * Baselard, a late medieval heavy dagger;
 * Cinquedea, a civilian long dagger;
 * Dirk, the Scottish long dagger (biodag);
 * Hanger or wood-knife, a type of hunting sword or infantry sabre;
 * certain fascine knives:
 * Model 1832 Foot Artillery Sword, a blade of about 25 inches in length designed after the Roman gladius. Also known as a coupe-chou (literally a cabbage cutter) in France.

Bidenhänder
The Bidenhänder or two-hander is the "true" two-handed sword.

The Bidenhänder was a specialist weapon wielded by certain Landsknechte Doppelsöldners. It is highly doubtful that these two-handed swords were used to chop off the point of pikes; however, the two-handed sword was an ideal weapon for protecting the standard bearer or a breach since a Doppelsöldner armed with one could fend off many attackers by using moulinets.

Over-sized two-handers that were not practical weapons were popular as parade swords.

Rapier
The rapier (French épée rapière, Spanish espada ropera). Note that there is no historical Italian equivalent to the English word rapier.

The term rapier appeared in the English lexicon via the French épée rapière which either compared the weapon to a rasp or file; or rapier may be a corruption of "rasping sword" which referred to the rasping sound the blade makes when it comes into contact with another blade.

Confusingly, the German rappier is not the same weapon as the rapier but rather a long sword.

"Handedness"
The term two-handed sword, used as a general term, may refer to any large sword designed to be used primarily with two hands:
 * the European longsword, popular in the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance.
 * the Scottish late medieval claymore (not to be confused with the basket-hilted claymore of the 18th century)
 * the Bidenhänder sword favoured by the Landsknechte of 16th-century Germany.

The term "hand-and-a-half sword" is modern (late 19th century). During the first half of the 20th century, the term "bastard sword" was used regularly to refer to this type of sword, while "long sword" or "long-sword", if used at all, referred to the rapier (in the context of Renaissance or Early Modern fencing).

The term "single-handed sword" (or "one-handed sword") is a retronym coined to disambiguate from "two-handed" or "hand-and-a-half" specimens. "Single-handed sword" is used by Sir Walter Scott. It is also used as a possible gloss of the obscure term tonsword by Nares (1822); "one-handed sword" is somewhat later, recorded from c. 1850.

Apparently, some swords were designed for left-hand use, although left-handed swords have been described as "a rarity".

Edgeless swords
The edgeless swords category comprises weapons which are related to or labeled as “swords” but do not have any cutting edges whatsoever. These long weapons were designed for thrusting blows. The merits of such weapons was greatly disputed in the Renaissance.

Panzerstecher and koncerz
The Panzerstecher is a German and East European weapon with a long edgeless weapon of square or triangular cross-section for penetrating armour. Early models were either two-handers or “hand-and-half” hilted, while later 16th and 17th century models (also known as koncerz) were one-handed and used by cavalry.

Tuck and Verdun
The tuck (French estoc, Italian stocco) is an edgeless blade of square or triangular cross-section used for thrusting. In French, estoc also means thrust or point; and estoc et taille means cut and thrust.

The tuck may also get its name from the verb to tuck which means to shorten.

Small-sword
The small sword or smallsword (also court sword, fr: épée de cour or dress sword) is a light one-handed sword designed for thrusting which evolved out of the longer and heavier rapier of the late Renaissance. The height of the small sword's popularity was between the mid-17th and late 18th century. It is thought to have appeared in France and spread quickly across the rest of Europe. The small sword was the immediate predecessor of the French dueling sword (from which the épée developed) and its method of use—as typified in the works of such authors as Sieur de Liancour, Domenico Angelo, Monsieur J. Olivier, and Monsieur L'Abbat—developed into the techniques of the French classical school of fencing. Small swords were also used as status symbols and fashion accessories; for most of the 18th century anyone, civilian or military, with pretensions to gentlemanly status would have worn a small sword on a daily basis.

Hangers and Sabres
Hangers and sabres are single-edged, usually curved bladed swords.

Hanger
The hanger (Obs. whinyard, whinger, cuttoe), wood-knife or hunting sword is a long knife or short sword that hangs from the belt and was popular as both a hunting tool and weapon of war.

Falchion and cutlass
The falchion (French braquemart, Spanish bracamarte) proper is a wide straight-bladed but curved edged hanger or long knife. The term falchion may also refer to the early cutlass.

The cutlass or curtal-axe also known as a falchion (French badelaire, braquemart, coutelas, malchus Italian coltellaccio, storta, German messer, dussack, malchus) is a broad-bladed curved hanger or long knife. In later usage, the cutlass referred to the short naval boarding sabre.

Sabre
The saber (UK sabre) or shable (French sabre, Spanish sable, Italian sciabola, German sabel or säbel, Russian sablya, Hungarian szablya, Polish szabla) is a single-edged curved bladed cavalry sword.

Scimitar
The scimitar (French cimeterre, Italian scimitarra) is a type of saber that came to refer in general to any sabre used by the Turks or Ottomans (kilij), Persians (shamshir) and more specifically the Stradioti (Albanian and Greek mercenaries who fought in the French-Italian Wars and were employed throughout Western Europe ). The scimitar proper was the Stradioti saber, and the term was introduced into France by Philippe de Commines (1447 – 18 October 1511) as cimeterre, Italy (especially the Venetian Republic who hired the stradioti as mercenaries) as scimitarra, and England as cimeter or scimitar via the French and Italian terms.