Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A curved one-edged sword or war-knife used by Germanic and Celtic peoples; specifically, the largest weapon of this sort, having a blade sometimes 20 inches in length.
- noun In heraldry, a bearing representing a weapon more or less like the above, but often approaching the form of a simitar, to distinguish it from which it is then engrailed at the back.
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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Most of the objects are associated with weapons and war gear, e.g. 84 pommel caps and 71 hilt fittings from swords or seaxes a seax was a long fighting knife or short sword have been identified so far.
Archive 2009-09-01 Carla 2009
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Most of the objects are associated with weapons and war gear, e.g. 84 pommel caps and 71 hilt fittings from swords or seaxes a seax was a long fighting knife or short sword have been identified so far.
Staffordshire Hoard Carla 2009
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In his belt was a short, heavy, one-edged sword, or rather a long knife, called the seax ... used for close quarters. "
Beowulf Robert Sharp 1879
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In his belt was a short, heavy, one-edged sword, or rather a long knife, called the seax ... used for close quarters. "
Beowulf Robert Sharp 1879
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Against her side, beneath her cloak, she could feel the leather sheath of the seax and wondered if she would have the courage and swiftness to use it.
The Falcons of Montabard Chadwick, Elizabeth 2004
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Then I clad myself in all feasting finery, with Carl's handsome sword at my side, and a seax, which Ecgbert had given me to match it, also handy to my right hand in my belt.
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Then came into my mind the words of my father, who would ever tell me that he is basest who would slay an unarmed foe, or smite a fallen man; and hastily I put back the seax again, lest I should be tempted to become base as men had said I was; for I hold treachery to be of the same nature as that of which my father warned me.
A Thane of Wessex 1884
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Mine, too, was the baldric from which it hung, and mine was the seax that balanced it, close to the right hand in the belt.
A Thane of Wessex 1884
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And then I knew that my own weapons lay beside me, and I sprang up, and grasped the sword and seax in haste to buckle them on.
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Perhaps that was because, being in hunting gear and with naught more than the short sword and seax one always wears, we had no weapons, and were plainly on peaceful business.
fbharjo commented on the word seax
sword in old english
October 11, 2008
bilby commented on the word seax
Don't use your seax as a weapon.
October 11, 2008
hernesheir commented on the word seax
Here's a term for the listers of heraldry words.
October 2, 2011