ventail Now Hist.
Forms: α. 4–6 (9) ventayle, 5 -tayll(e, -tayl; 4–6 (9) ventaile, 5–6 -tale, 5 -taill (9 -taille), 4, 9 ventail (5 Sc. wen-). β. 5 ventalle, 5–6 -tall, 6 -tal.
[a. OF. ventaille, -taile, ventalle (mod.F. ventail masc., = OProv. ventalha, It. ventaglia), f. vent wind, air. Hence also MHG. vin-, finteile, vintale. A purely English variant is aventail.
As the sense of ‘breathing-place’ appears to be inapplicable to the earliest use of the word (see sense 1) in French and English, the name may originally have been given to the piece of armour from a real or fancied resemblance to some other article so designated. Other senses of the OF. word (and of the related forms ventele, ventail, and vental) are fan, vane (of a windmill), sluice, shutter, leaf (of a folding door or picture). In OF. romances the ventaille is freq. mentioned as covering the heart or breast: cf. Chaucer Clerk's Tale 1148.]
† 1. A piece of armour protecting the neck, upon which the helmet fitted; a neck-piece. Obs.
| α a 1330 Roland & V. 863 His ventail he gan vn-lace & smot of his heued in þe place. 13.. Guy Warw. (A.) 92 His helme was of so michel miȝt, Was neuer man ouer-comen in fiȝt Þat hadde it on his ventayle. a 1400 Sir Perc. 1722 He hitt hym evene one the nekk-bane, Thurgh ventale and pesane. c 1400 Laud Troy Bk. 14375 Her helmes were on her ventayles sperde. c 1450 Lovelich Grail xiv. 33 Helmes, hawberkes, & ventaylles also, Alle to the Grownde he dyde hem go. |
| β a 1400 Sqr. lowe Degre 222 Your basenette shall be burnysshed bryght, Your ventall shalbe well dyght, With starres of gold it shall be set. |
2. The lower movable part of the front of a helmet, as distinct from the vizor; latterly, the whole movable part including the vizor.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 7030 The duke with a dynt derit hym agayn, Þat the viser & the ventaile voidet hym fro. c 1400 Anturs of Arth. xxxii, Then he auaylet vppe his viserne fro his ventalle. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 867 He braidit vp his ventaill, That closit wes clene. a 1533 Ld. Berners Huon cxxiv. 448 Vnder the ventayle of his helme the terys of water fell downe fro his eyen. 1590 Spenser F.Q. iii. ii. 24 Through whose bright ventayle..His manly face..lookt foorth. 1600 Fairfax Tasso vi. xxvi, He ventall vp so hie, that he descride Her goodly visage, and her beauties pride. 1802 James Milit. Dict., Ventail, that part of a helmet which is made to lift up. 1865 Sir J. K. James Tasso xx. xii, Thro' the barred ventayle his flushed features shone. [1869 Boutell Arms & Armour viii. 127 This piece, called the mesail, or mursail,..but more generally known in England as the ventaile, or visor, was pierced for both sight and breathing.] 1906 S. Heath Effigies in Dorset 10 Some⁓times with a movable ‘ventaille’ or visor. |
† b. One of the vents or air-holes of this.
Obs.—1| 1470–85 Malory Arthur x. lx. 516 The blood brast oute at the ventayls of his helme. |
† 3. Something acting as a sail or fan.
Obs.| a 1529 Skelton Col. Cloute 400 [The nuns] Must cast vp theyr blacke vayles, And set vp theyr fucke sayles, To catch wynde with their ventales. |