trebuchet
(ˈtrɛbəʃɛt, ‖ trebyʃɛ)
Forms: α. 4 trepejette, trepget, 4–5 -eget, 5 trepgett(e, trip-, trypgette, 6 trepegett, -gete, trepa-; β. 4–5 tri-, tre-, treybochet; 5 trebget (erron. -got); 6 trabu-, 7 trebuschet, (8–9 trebucket), 8– trebuchet.
[In I, a. OF. trebuchet, also trebuket, -busket, trabuchet (12th c. in Godef.) siege-engine, bird-trap, mod.F. trébuchet trap, balance (= Prov. trabuquet, Sp. trabuquete, It. trabocchetto, med.L. trā-, trēbuchētum, Du Cange), f. OF. tre-, tres-, trabucher (11th c.) to overturn, overthrow, stumble, fall, in med.L. trābuchāre: see trabuch. The early α-forms (trɛpɛˈdʒɛt, etc.) are imitations of OF. trebuchet (trɛbuˈtʃɛt). The word was obsolete in the 16th c.; from 18th c. historical and antiquarian. Sense 3 is from mod.Fr. In II, an application, in England, of med.L. trēbuchētum (see above), to the device known popularly from c 1200 as cuck-stool, cucking-stool. The Latin form remained app. as a legal term, rendered trebuchet in 17th c. by the legal antiquaries.
Cf. 1611 Cotgr., Trebuchet, a pitfall for birds; a pit, with a trap doore, for wild beasts; also, a paire of gold weights; also, an old-fashioned Engine of wood, from which great, and battering stones were most violently throwne.]
I. 1. A mediæval military engine for casting heavy missiles. Hist.
Described as consisting of a pivoted lever with a sling at one extremity, which was strained back against a heavy counterpoise, and then suddenly released. Cf. catapult n. 1.
| [1224 Close Roll 8 Hen. III, m. 4 Facias usque Doura maeremium ad trubechetum nostrum faciendum. ― 9 Hen. III, m. 24, viij. Roellas ereas quas fieri fecistis at trubechettum nostrum. 1377 Rolls of Parlt. III. 10/2 Un trebuchet outre ascun mesure qe l'en avoit unqes veeu.] |
| α 13.. Coer de L. 5227 With trepeiettes they slungen alsoo. 1388 Wyclif 1 Macc. vi. 20 Thei maden arblastis, [gloss] ether trepeiettis, that is, an instrument for to caste schaftis, and stoonys. c 1400 [see mangonel]. c 1420 Brut 428 The Kynge..leid therto his grete Gounnys, Trepgettis and Engenys, and bete adowne the wallis. 1520 Caxton's Chron. Eng. vii. 145/1 Gonnes, Engynnes, and trypgettes [1482 trip-]. 1599 Thynne Animadv. (1875) 41 ‘Trepegett’ yo{supu} expounde ‘a Ramme to batter walles’. But the trepegete was the same that the mogonell. [1896 Eng. Hist. Rev. Apr. 357 Eustace the monk was taken, and Stephen of Winchelsea..gave him his choice of having his head cut off on the trapget or the bulwarks [rather of being hurled from the trapget or having his head cut off on the bulwarks].] |
| β a 1400–50 Alexander 1296 With traumes & with tribochetis þe tild to asaile. c 1400 Siege of Troy 838 in Archiv neu. Spr. LXXII. 33 An hundrid gynnys þer were vpset, Of Maungeneles and Treybochet. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 501/1 Trebget, for werre (S. trepgette), trabucetum. 1795 Southey Joan of Arc viii. 198 Who kneeling by the trebuchet, Charged its long sling with death. 1825 Scott Betrothed viii, ‘Well driven, trebuchet—well flown, quarrel!’ cried the monk. 1885 C. W. C. Oman Art of War 57 The feeble siege-artillery of the day, perrieres, catapults, trebuchets, and so forth. |
† 2. A trap or gin to catch small birds or beasts.
Obs. rare. (So in
Fr. from 14th c.)
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xii. 86 Þou tomblest wiþ a trepget ȝif þou my tras folwe. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 501/1 Trebget [pr. -got], sly instrument to take brydys or beestys (S. trepgette), tendicule. |
3. A small delicately poised balance or pair of scales; an assay balance; a tilting scale. (So
Fr.)
| 1550 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 105/1 Par de lie trabuschettis 15 sol. 1613 Bp. Forbes Comm. Rev. xviii. §6. 191 It is a hard thing to fall into the hands of the Lord: before whom all Nations are but as the droppe of a Bucket, or as the dust of a Trebuschet. 1871 M. C. Lea Photogr. 420 The French pattern of ‘trebuchet’, or tilting scale, now largely manufactured here. 1877 Knight Dict. Mech., Trebucket. |
II. 4. An instrument of punishment,
= cucking-stool,
q.v.| [c 1200 Chron. of Jocelin de Brakelond (Camden) 38 Levaverunt homines de Illegga quoddam trebuchet, ad faciendam justiciam pro falsis mensuris panis vel bladi mensurandi. ? 1266–7 Judicium Pillorie in Stat. Realm (1870) I. 201/1 Paciatur judicium corporis, scilicet, Pistor Collistrigium, et Braciatrix trebuchetum vel castigatorium. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 107/1 Cukstole, for flyterys,..turbuscetum, cadurca. 1500 Ortus Vocab., Terbichetum, a cok⁓stole.] c 1640 J. Smyth Hundred of Berkeley (1885) 143 Cucking stool and other Judicials, Collistrigia et trebuchets. 1667 E. Chamberlayne Pres. St. Eng. i. (1684) 48 Scolding women are to be set in a Trebuchet, commonly called a Cuckingstool..placed over some deep water into which they are let down and plunged under water thrice. 1769 Blackstone Comm. IV. xiii. 169 A common scold,..if convicted, shall be sentenced to be placed in a certain engine of correction called the trebucket, castigatory, or cucking stool. 1867 Cornh. Mag. Jan. 38 A homely provision made for the punishment of mere bad language in the bridle and trebuchet or ducking-stool. |