sparth

From Middle English sparth, from Old Norse sparða.

sparth (plural sparths)

1. (obsolete) A battle-axe or halberd.
   • 1530 July 18, Iohan Palſgrave, “The Introduction”, in Leſclarciſſement de la langue francoyſe […] ‎, London: Richard Pynſon, Iohan Haukyns, OCLC 715474564, page 66; reprinted as Lesclarcissement de la langue françoyse, Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1972:

     Sparthe an inſtrument.

   • 1587, Raphaell Holinshed; Iohn Hooker, “The Second Book of the Conqueſt of Ireland”, in The firſt and ſecond volumes of Chronicles […] , volume II, London: Henry Denham, page 33:

     […] betweene whom was a cruell fight, the one part giuing a fierce onſet with ſtones and ſpaths^[sic], & the other defending themſelues with bowes and weapons.

   • 1633, Edmund Campion; Meredith Hamner, Tvvo Histories of Ireland […] ‎, Dublin: Society of Stationers, page 66:

     […] how that the Englſshmen not being able to ſtand in fight, turned backe to backe, with ſparthes and two handed swords, untill the laſt man was ſlaine.

• sparth at OneLook Dictionary Search
• sparth in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• sparth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

• thraps

• sparreth, sparthe, sparþe

Borrowed from Old Norse sparða.

• IPA^(key): /sparθ/, /ˈsparð(ə)/

sparth (plural sparthes)

1. battle-axe
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Knyghtes Tale”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], OCLC 230972125; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, OCLC 932884868:

     He hath a sparth of twenti pound of wight.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

• English: sparth

• “sparth(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.