demi-lance
(ˈdɛmɪlɑːns, -æ-)
Forms: 5 demye launce, 6 demy-, deme-, demi-, dimilaunce, dimilance, 6–7 demy-, 6–8 demilance, 7 demilaunce, 6–9 demi-lance.
[a. F. demie lance (15th c. in Littré): cf. demi- 3.]
1. A lance with short shaft, used in the 15th and 16th centuries.
| c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon xxii. 487 Charlemagn..helde a demye launce in hys hande. 1563–87 Foxe A. & M. (1596) 307/1 Who in the waie stroke the lord Gilbert Humsard such a blow with his demilance, that he feld both him and his horsse to the ground. 1598 Deloney Jacke Newb. ii. 43 Fiftie tall men..demilances in their hands. 1697 Dryden Virgil vii. 1010 Light demi-lances from afar they throw, Fasten'd with leathern thongs, to gall the foe. 1877 C. M. Yonge Cameos III. xxx. 301 He struck him such a blow with his demi-lance as to unhorse him. |
| attrib. 1658 J. Burbury Hist. Christina Alessandra 358 His Holinesse likewise ordered that five of his demy-lance men should every day wait by turns on her Majesty. |
2. A light horseman armed with a demilance. In the literal sense,
obs. by 1600,
exc. as
historical; in 17th c. often used humorously like ‘cavalier’.
| 1544 Cranmer in M. Burrows Worthies All Souls v. (1874) 65 To send up one demy-launce well furnished. 1560 Diurn. Occurrents (1833) 56 V{supm} fute men and xviij{supc} lycht horsemen and dimilances. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xxi. §48 Nineteene Knights, sixe hundred demi-Lances. 1631 Shirley Love's Cruelty iii. ii, Be not angry, demi-lance. 1755 Carte Hist. Eng. IV. 55 The forces under his command consisting of 600 demilances, 200 archers on horsebacke, 3000 on foot. 1849 J. Grant Kirkaldy of Gr. ix. 82 Kirkaldy with his troop of demi-lances accompanied this column of the army. |
Hence
demi-ˈlancer = demi-lance 2.
| 1552 Huloet, Dimilauncer or bearer of a dimilaunce, lancearius. 1625 Markham Souldiers Accid. 40 The second Troope of Horse were called Launciers or Demi⁓launciers. 1767 Entick London I. 452 A large body of demi-lancers in bright armour. |