curtana

views updated Jun 27 2018

curtana the unpointed sword carried in front of English sovereigns at their coronation to represent mercy. The name is recorded from Middle English and comes from Anglo-Latin curtana (spatha) ‘shortened (sword)’, from Old French cortain, the name of a sword belonging to Roland (the point of which was damaged when it was thrust into a block of steel), from cort ‘short’, from Latin curtus ‘cut short’.

curtana

views updated Jun 27 2018

curtana pointless sword used at English coronations. XIII. — Al. curtāna fem. (sc. spatha sword) — AN. curtain, OF. cortain name of Roland's sword, so called because it had broken at the point when thrust into a block of steel, f. cort, curt short.

More From encyclopedia.com