Glaive

A is a  which is basically a  with a shaft that is typically between 6 to 8 ft with a heavy cutting single-edged blade at the end. It is similar to the naginata, the  guandao, the  woldo, and the  sovnya.

Overview
Typically, the blade is around 45 cm long, on the end of a pole 2 m long, and the blade is affixed in a socket-shaft configuration similar to an axe head, rather than having a tang like a sword or. Occasionally, glaive blades were forged with a small hook on the reverse side to better catch riders. Such blades are called glaive-.

According to the 1599 treatise Paradoxes of Defence by the English gentleman, the glaive is used in the same general manner as the , half pike, , , , or. Silver rated this class of polearms above all other individual hand-to-hand combat weapons.

The (Morgan Bible) depicts an example of a two-handed glaive used on horseback.

The contemporary term for this weapon may have been ', which was used for a variety of single-edged weapons seen as related to the (along with terms such as ', , or  derived from , the Latin term for "scythe").

"It has been argued that the glaive had its origin in Wales, and that it remained a national weapon until the end of the XVth Century. Grose mentions a warrant (Harleian MS., No. 433) issued to Nicholas Spicer, dated the first year of Richard III's reign, 1483 for enrolling of smiths for "the making of two hundred Welsh glaives" – twenty shillings and sixpence being the charge for thirty glaives with their staves, made at Abergavenny and Llanllowel."

Other uses of the word
The word "glaive" has historically been given to several very different types of weapons.
 * The word "glaive" originated from French. Almost all etymologists derive it from either the Latin (gladius) or Celtic (*cladivos, cf. ) word for sword. Nevertheless, all the earliest attestations in both French and English refer to s. It is attested in this meaning in English roughly from the 14th century to the 16th century.
 * In the 15th century, it acquired the meaning described above.
 * Around the same time it also began being used as a poetic word for sword.
 * In Modern French "glaive" refers to short swords, especially the Roman.
 * The term "glaive" is used in the science fiction/fantasy film  to refer to a thrown weapon, similar to the or, which can return to the thrower, much like a . "Glaive" has been used to describe this fictional type of weapon in films, video games and other fantasy media since.

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