ProbableNamed from the place
Lucerne hammer
noun · first attested 19th century
Named after the arsenal where the surviving examples happened to be stored.
A Swiss polearm combining a pronged hammer head with a long spike, made for fighting armored men.
47.0523°N 8.3059°E · Q4191
Record
- Relationship
- Named from the place
- Confidence
- ProbableThe conventional story is likely, with caveats.
- Attested
- 19th century
- Part of speech
- noun
Explanations here are written for this atlas. Dictionary text is not copied; the sources are linked so the claim can be checked.
- Step 1
Lucerne
- In English
Lucerne hammer
Swiss infantry used the weapon from the late medieval period, and arms writers attached the name of Lucerne because so many specimens survive in that city's arsenal. It is a collectors' and curators' label rather than what the soldiers carrying it called the thing.
Switzerland
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