half-piken.
Now Hist.
A small pike, having a shaft of about half the length of the full-sized one. There were two kinds; one, also called a spontoon, formerly carried by infantry officers; the other, used in ships for repelling boarders, a boarding pike.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > sharp weapon > pike > [noun] > half-pike
half-pikea1607
rapparee1690
spontoon1746
espontoon1772
boarding-pike1802
xyston1856
a1607 H. Chettle Trag. Hoffman (1631) sig. C3, Ile trie one course with thee at the halfe pike, and then goe, come draw thy pike.
a1627 T. Middleton & W. Rowley Old Law (1656) iii. 42 Ile pay you speedily—with a trick I learnt once amongst drunkards, heeres halfe pike.
1698 tr. F. Froger Relation Voy. Coasts Afr. 12 Their ordinary Arms are the Hanger, the Sagay [assagai], which is a very light Half-Pike.
1715 London Gaz. No. 5358/2 The Duke of Guise with an Half-Pike in his Hand, being at the Head of the Regiment.
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine Demi-pique, a half-pike, sometimes used to oppose boarders in a sea-fight.
1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xiv. 422 Camp followers, armed with scythes, halfpikes, and skeans.
Compounds
Comb.
half-pike-man n.
ΚΠ
1690 J. Mackenzie Siege London-derry 60/2 That the said Half-Pike-men..be disarmed.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1898; most recently modified version published online June 2016).
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