This cross-indexed glossary defines terms for European Medieval armor. Different terms could mean different things at different times, so the terminology can be confusing. I have tried to give commonly agreed upon definitions.
This glossary is based heavily on the glossary in Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight by David Edge and John M Paddock, published by Crescent Books. This is an excellent book covering European weapons and armor from the eleventh century to the sixteenth century.
The pictures displayed in this glossary are from various places listed on my Armor Web Sites page. Larger pictures can be seen by clicking on the smaller pictures shown in the glossary.
A
- Action
- Aketon
- Ailettes
- Thirteenth to fourteenth-century flat pieces of leather or parchment worn on the point of the shoulder to display a coat-of-arms
- Almain rivet
- Sixteenth-century German munition half-armor or corslet
- Aketon
- Padded and quilted garment worn under armor or as armor by itself
- Anima
- Anime
- Anime
- Cuirass made of horizontal overlapping lames
- Armet
- Fifteenth-century Italian helmet consisting of a skull, two hinged cheek pieces which fasten at the front, and a visor
An armet
The Lonely Mountain Forge - Arming cap
- Padded cap or hood worn inside a helmet
- Arming Doublet
- Fifteenth-century and later quilted garment worn under armor that is equipped with arming points to attach mail gussets and other pieces of armor
An arming doublet
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Arming points
- Ties to secure armor in place
- Aventail
- Mail, attached to the bottom edge of a helmet, often by vervelles, covering the neck and shoulders
An aventail attached to a hounskull basinet by vervelles
Valentine Armouries
B
- Backplate
- Plate armor for the back
- Barbote
- Spanish high bevor with a falling lame containing eyeslits
- Barbut
- One-piece Italian helmet often with a T-shaped face opening
A barbut
Valentine Armouries - Barbuta
- Italian Barbut
- Barbute
- Barbut
- Bascinet
- Basinet
- Bases
- 1) Sixteenth-century cloth skirts worn over armor
2) Tonlet - Basinet
- Open-faced helmet with a rounded or pointed skull, often worn with an aventail and visor
- Basnet
- Basinet
- Bavier
- Bevor
- Bellows visor
- Sixteenth-century visor with horizontal ridges
A bellows visor on a close helmet
Valentine Armouries - Besegew
- Circular plate protecting the armpit
- Bevor
- Plate armor for the chin and lower face, sometimes including a gorget
A bevor
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Birnie
- Mail shirt
A birnie
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Bishop’s mantle
- Sixteenth-century mail cape covering the shoulders
- Bouche
- Notch in the top corner of a shield to help support a lance when jousting
- Bracer
- 1) Fourteenth-century armor for the lower arm
2) Archer’s forearm guard to protect from the bowstring - Brassart
- Vambrace, definition 2
- Breastplate
- Plate armor for the front of the torso
A breastplate
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Breaths
- Holes for ventilation in the faceplate or visor of a helmet or in the lames of a falling buffe or bevor
- Brigandine
- Flexible torso armor of small plates riveted inside a covering of leather or fabric
A brigandine
Valentine Armouries - Buckler
- Small round shield
- Buffe
- Sixteenth-centry bevor worn strapped to an open-faced helmet
- Burgonet
- Sixteenth-century open-faced helmet with a peak over the brow, a combed skull, and hinged ear-pieces
A burgonet
Valentine Armouries - Byrnie
- Birnie
C
- Cabacete
- Fifteenth-century Spanish helmet with a turned-down brim and an almond-shaped skull ending in a stalk-like projection
A cabacete
Bru-Baker’s Swords, Armory & Artifacts - Cabasset
- Spanish morion with an almond-shaped skull ending in a stalk-like projection, derived from the cabacete
A cabasset
Bru-Baker’s Swords, Armory & Artifacts - Camail
- French Aventail
- Cannon
- Plate armor encircling the upper and lower arm
- Cap-a-pied
- French “From head to foot”, meaning fully armored
- Casque
- Fifteenth to sixteenth-century open-faced helmet, often of classical design, similar to a burgonet
- Casquetal
- Casque
- Celata
- Fifteenth-century Italian open-faced sallet
- Cervelliere
- Steel skull cap
- Chapel de Fer
- Kettle hat
- Charnel
- Fourteenth-century staple or bolt used to secure the helm or great basinet to the breastplate and backplate
- Chausses
- Mail leggings enclosing the leg and foot, or strips of mail laced to the front of the legs
Chausses in the form of strips of mail covering the front of the legs
Valentine Armouries - Close helmet
- Helmet with a full visor and bevor that completely encloses the head and face
A close helmet
Valentine Armouries - Coat armor
- Fourteenth-century quilted garment worn over armor
- Coat of fence
- Jack
- Coat of plates
- Fourteenth-century torso armor of large plates riveted inside a cloth or leather garment
- Cod-piece
- Covering for the groin
- Coif
- Hood, usually of mail
A mail coif
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Collar
- Gorget
- Comb
- Ridge on the skull of a helmet that runs from front to back
- Comb morion
- Morion with a high central comb on the top of the skull
A comb morion
Museum Replicas Limited - Corselet
- Corslet
- Corslet
- 1) Sixteenth-century half-armor consisting of a gorget, breastplate, backplate, tassets, full arm armor, and gauntlets
2) Sixteenth-century cuirass - Couter
- Plate armor for the elbow
- Cowter
- Couter
- Crest
- Thirteenth-century and later heraldic device attached to the top of the helm
- Cuirass
- Breastplate and backplate made to be worn together
- Cuir bouilli
- Rigid leather hardened by saturation in water or boiled in wax
- Cuirie
- Thirteenth-century cuirass originally made of cuir bouilli
- Cuishes
- Cuisses
- Cuisses
- Armor for the thighs
- Culet
- Hooped plate armor of horizontal lames for the buttocks
D
- Dog-faced basinet
- Hounskull
- Double-pieces
- Exchange pieces
E
- Elbow cop
- Couter
- Elbow gauntlet
- Gauntlet with a cuff that reaches up the arm to the elbow, replacing the lower cannon of the vambrace and the couter
- Enarmes
- Straps attached to the inside of the shield for holding it with the arm
- Espalier
- Thirteenth-century and later shoulder armor, usually laminated
- Exchange pieces
- Extra pieces of armor which could be added or exchanged to customize a harness for different uses, such as for foot combat and for different types of jousts
F
- Fall
- Peak on the brow of a helmet, sometimes pivotted at the sides
- Falling buffe
- Sixteenth bevor made of several lames held in place by a latch that, when released, allows the lames to slide down to expose the face for better vision and ventilation
A falling buffe on a burgonet
Valentine Armouries - Fauld
- Armor for the abdomen, usually of horizontal lames attached to the lower edge of a breastplate
A fauld of three lames on a breastplate
By The Sword - Fence
- Jack
- Field armor
- Armor made for war, “for the field”
- Finger gauntlet
- Gauntlet with each finger protected by its own separate set of lames
A pair of finger gauntlets
The Lonely Mountain Forge - Frog-mouthed helm
- Fourteenth-century and later helm, usually attached to the breastplate and backplate, where the lower edge of the sight projects well beyond the upper edge
A frog-mouthed helm
Valentine Armouries
G
- Gadlings
- Protruding studs on the the knuckles of a gauntlet, sometimes spiked, jewelled, or in the shape of animals
- Gambeson
- Quilted doublet with a skirt worn either under armor, over armor, or as armor by itself
- Gamboised cuisses
- Thirteenth to fourteenth-century padded and quilted cuisses
- Gardbrace
- Fifteenth-century and later reinforcing plate attached to the pauldron
- Gard-cuish
- Tilting socket
- Gard-cuisse
- Tilting socket
- Garde-rein
- Armor for the buttocks
- Garniture
- Sixteenth-century and later complete harness with and additional 20 or 30 matching exchange pieces
- Gauntlets
- Armored gloves for the hands, either of mitten type or with individual fingers
- Gipon
- Jupon
- Gorget
- Plate collar covering the neck and tops of the chest and shoulders
A gorget
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Gothic armor
- Fifteenth-century German armor style characterized pointed, thin lines and fluting, often in fan-shaped designs
A Gothic harness
Valentine Armouries - Grand guard
- Large plate for the joust attached to the left side of the breastplate to reinforce it, the armor for the left arm, and the left side of the visor
- Great basinet
- Basinet with attached plate armor for the neck instead of an aventail
- Great helm
- Helm
- Greave
- Plate armor for the leg from the knee to the ankle, initially only covering the front of the shin, but later made of two hinged plates encircling the lower leg
Two types of greaves
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Greenwich armor
- Sixteenth-century armor style made at Greenwich in England at the workshops set up by Henry VIII
A Greenwich harness
Valentine Armouries - Guard chains
- Fourteenth-century chains which linked the sword, dagger, and helm to the breastplate to prevent them from being lost in battle
- Guige
- Strap attached to the inside of the shield by which it could be slung around the neck
- Gussets
- 1) Fifteenth-century mail sleeves covering the armpits and other portions of the arm not covered by plate armor
Mail gussets attached to an arming doublet by arming points
Valentine Armouries
2) Sixteenth-century lames at the armpit of the breastplate
H
- Habergeon
- Short hauberk
A haubergeon
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Half armor
- Armor for the the torso and arms, but leaving the legs unprotected
- Haqueton
- Aketon
- Harness
- Complete “suit” of armor
- Haubergeon
- Habergeon
- Hauberk
- Sleeved shirt of mail or scale reaching down to the hip or knee
A hauberk
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Haute-piece
- Plate attached to the pauldron that sticks up to protect the neck
- Heater shield
- Shield with a flat top and sides that curve to a point
A heater shield
Museum Replicas Limited - Heaume
- Helm
- Helm
- Helmet enclosing the entire head and face and reaching down almost to the shoulders
A helm
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Hosting armor
- Field armor
- Hounskull
- Fourteenth and fifteenth-century nickname for a type of pointed visor on a basinet
A hounskull on a basinet with a mail aventail attached by vervelles
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Hour-glass gauntlet
- Fourteenth-century finger gauntlet with a large plate covering the back and sides of the hand that narrows at the wrist and flares out to form a short cuff
A pair of hourglass gauntlets
Valentine Armouries
I
J
- Jack
- Doublet or jacket usually lined with small metal plates, but sometimes just padded
- Jamb
- Schynbald
- Jambart
- Schynbald
- Jamber
- Schynbald
- Jambiere
- Schynbald
- Jupon
- Fourteenth to fifteenth-century tight-fitting padded garment worn over armor, often displaying a coat-of-arms
K
- Kastenbrust
- Fifteenth-century German breastplate with angular lines
- Kettle hat
- Simple open-faced helmet consisting of a skull with a wide brim
A kettle hat
Valentine Armouries - Kite-shaped shield
- Tenth to thirteenth-century large shield of elongated triangular shape with a rounded top
A kite-shaped shield
Museum Replicas Limited - Klapvisier
- Fourteenth-century German globular visor attached to the basinet by a central hinge over the forehead
A klapvisier on a basinet
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Knee cop
- Poleyn
L
- Lamellar
- Semi-rigid armor made of small plates laced together
- Lames
- Narrow strips of plate often used to provide articulation
- Laminated
- Constructed entirely or partially of lames
- Lance rest
- Support bolted onto the breastplate to help hold a couched lance
M
- Flexible armor made up of interlocking metal rings
Mail
By The Sword - Manifer
- Plate armor for the left hand and and lower left arm, usually worn for jousting
- Maximilian armor
- Sixteenth-century armor style popular during the reign of Emperor Maximilian (1494-1519) characterized by narrow, parallel fluting
A Maximilian harness
Valentine Armouries - Mitten gauntlet
- Gauntlet with a single set of lames covering all of the fingers
A pair of mitten gauntlets
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Morion
- Sixteenth-century helmet consisting of a skull with a broad brim turning upwards at the front and back
A morion
Medieval Replicas - Muffler
- Mitten-like extension to the sleeve of a hauberk to cover the hand
- Munition armor
- Sixteenth-century mass-produced, cheaply-made armor for the common soldier
- Munnions
- Articluated lames, usually attached to the gorget, protecting the shoulders and upper arms
N
- Nasal
- Plate attached to the front of a helmet to protect the nose and middle of the face
- Norman helmet
- Eleventh-century helmet with a conical skull and a nasal, made either in one piece or of Spangenhelm construction, often associated with the Normans
A Norman helmet
Medieval Replicas
O
- Orle
- Wreath or twisted circlet worn on the skull of a helmet
P
- Pair of curates
- Cuirass
- Pair of plates
- Coat of plates
- Pasguard
- Plate reinforcement for the left elbow for jousting
- Pauldron
- Laminated armor for the shoulder extending at the front and rear to protect the armpit
- Pavise
- Large shield carried by infantrymen, often equipped with a prop to set them upright on the ground
- Pieces of exchange
- Exchange pieces
- Pig-faced basinet
- Hounskull
- Plackart
- Plate reinforcement for the lower part of the breastplate
- Plates
- Coat of plates
- Points
- Arming points
- Poldermitten
- Plate reinforcement for the right arm for jousting
- Poleyn
- Plate armor for the knee, usually equipped with a side wing protecting the outside of the knee
- Pomme
- Fifteenth-centry spherical helmet decoration worn instead of a crest
- Pot
- Simple common soldier’s helmet
- Proof
- Armor “of proof” is made strong enough to resist a shot from a bow or musket
- Puffed and slashed armor
- Sixteenth-century armor style characterized by embossing resembling a civilian style of dress where puffs of colored material were pulled through slashes in the sleeves and body of a contrasting outer layer of material
Q
- Queue
- Sixteenth-century bar bolted to the breastplate to steady the lance for jousting
R
- Rennhut
- One-piece sallet designed for jousting with sharpened lances
- Renntartsche
- Large shield for jousting with sharpened lances bolted to and covering the breastplate and bevor
- Rennzeug
- Armor for jousting with sharpened lances
- Rerebrace
- Armor for the upper arm
- Rondache
- Buckler
- Rondel
- Metal disk on the rear of an armet to protect the strap for the wrapper
- Rump guard
- Fifteenth-century oblong plate hung from the lower edge of the culet
S
- Sabaton
- Plate armor for the foot consisting of lames ending in a toecap
A pair of sabatons
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Salade
- Sallet
- Sallet
- Helmet, either open-faced or equipped with a visor, that has a tail to protect the neck
A sallet
Valentine Armouries - Scale
- Armor made from small overlapping plates sewn or laced to a cloth or leather garment
- Schynbald
- Plate armor for the lower leg which protected only the shin
- Sight
- Vision slit in a helmet or visor
- Skull
- Part of a helmet that covers the top, back and sides of the head above the ears
- Skull cap
- Simple metal cap
- Solleret
- French Sabaton
- Spangenhelm
- Conical helmet made of a number of plates riveted together
A spangenhelm
Valentine Armouries - Spanish morion
- Cabasset
- Spaulder
- Laminated armor for the shoulder and top of the arm
A pair of spaulders
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Splint
- Fifteenth and sixteenth-century gutter-shaped plates protecting only the outside of the arm, usually found on munition armor
- Standard
- Mail collar
- Stechhelm
- Frog-mouthed helm which was bolted to the brestplate for jousting with blunted lances
- Stechtartsche
- Small rectangular shield tied onto the breastplate for jousting with blunted lances
- Stechzeug
- Armor for jousting with blunted lances
- Stop rib
- Small bar riveted to plate armor to prevent the point of a weapon from sliding into a joint or opening
- Stud and splint armor
- Armor made of metal strips and studs riveted onto a leather backing
- Sugarloaf helm
- Helm with a conical skull
A sugarloaf helm
The Lonely Mountain Forge - Suit of armor
- Harness
- Surcoat
- Twelfth-century and later flowing garment worn over armor, either sleeved or sleeveless and usually reaching to the mid-calf, often displaying a coat-of-arms
T
- Tabard
- Short garment with open sides and short sleeves worn to display a coat-of-arms
- Taces
- Tassets
- Target
- Small round shield
Medieval Replicas - Tassets
- Fifteenth-century and later armor for the tops of the thighs that hangs from the fauld to cover the gaps between the breastplate and cuisses
- Tilting socket
- Large reinforced cuisses worn for jousting with sharpened lances
- Tonlet
- Fifteenth and sixteenth-century deep, hooped skirt of steel worn on armors designed for foot combat
- Turning joint
- A circular joint on the rerebrace that allows the arm to twist, formed by a flange that rotates inside a groove
U
V
- Vambrace
- 1) Armor for the lower arm
A pair of vambraces
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour
2) Entire arm armor except for the pauldron
A pair of vambraces
Christian Fletcher Medieval Armour - Ventail
- Thirteenth-century mail flap on a coif that draws across the mouth to protect the face
- Vervelles
- Staples attached to the lower edge of a helmet for attaching an aventail
- Visor
- Part of a helmet that protects the eyes and face, often pivoted to the skull
- Volant-piece
- Reinforcing plate on the brow of a helmet
W
- Waist lame
- Horizontal lamination in the breastplate or backplate at waist level
- War hat
- Kettle hat
- White armor
- Armor of plain, polished steel without any attached covering
A white harness
Valentine Armouries - Wrapper
- Reinforcing armor strapped to the front of the helmet that covers the chin and the lower half of the visor
A wrapper on an armet with a rondel
Valentine Armouries
