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Cutlass



 
 
A cutlass is a short, broad sabre
Sabre

The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually but not always has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large Guard , covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger....
 or slashing sword
Sword

A sword is a long, edged piece of metal, used as a cutting, thrusting, and clubbing weapon in many civilizations throughout the world. The word sword comes from the Old English language wikt:sweord, cognate to Old High German swert, Middle Dutch swaert, Old Norse sver? Old Frisian and Old Saxon swerd and Dutch langua...
, with a straight or slightly curved blade
Blade

A blade is the flat part of a tool, weapon, or machine that normally has a cutting edge and/or pointed end typically made of a flaking stone, such as flint, or metal, most recently steel....
 sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt
Hilt

The hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard,grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel....
 often featuring a solid cupped or basket
Basket-hilted sword

Basket-hilted swords are a group of sword types characterized by a basket-shaped guard that protects the hand. An early example was recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose, an English warship lost in 1545....
 shaped guard
Hilt

The hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard,grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel....
.

word cutlass, recorded in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 since 1594, is probably derived from the Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 coltellaccio (disparaging form of coltello, 'knife'), the name of a short, broad-bladed sabre
Sabre

The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually but not always has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large Guard , covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger....
 popular in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 during the 16th century, via the French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 coutelas, or coutelace, a form of coutel, modern couteau, a knife
Knife

A knife is a handheld sharp-edged instrument consisting of a handle attached to a blade that is used for cutting. Knives were used at least Stone Age, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools....
, from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 cultellus, diminutive of culter, a plowshare
Plowshare

In agriculture, a plowshare is a component of a plow . It is the cutting or leading edge of a moldboard which closely follows the coulter when plowing ....
, or cutting instrument.






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Museemarine Sabre P1000456
A cutlass is a short, broad sabre
Sabre

The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually but not always has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large Guard , covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger....
 or slashing sword
Sword

A sword is a long, edged piece of metal, used as a cutting, thrusting, and clubbing weapon in many civilizations throughout the world. The word sword comes from the Old English language wikt:sweord, cognate to Old High German swert, Middle Dutch swaert, Old Norse sver? Old Frisian and Old Saxon swerd and Dutch langua...
, with a straight or slightly curved blade
Blade

A blade is the flat part of a tool, weapon, or machine that normally has a cutting edge and/or pointed end typically made of a flaking stone, such as flint, or metal, most recently steel....
 sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt
Hilt

The hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard,grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel....
 often featuring a solid cupped or basket
Basket-hilted sword

Basket-hilted swords are a group of sword types characterized by a basket-shaped guard that protects the hand. An early example was recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose, an English warship lost in 1545....
 shaped guard
Hilt

The hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard,grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A tassel or sword knot may be attached to the guard or pommel....
.

Etymology

The word cutlass, recorded in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 since 1594, is probably derived from the Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
 coltellaccio (disparaging form of coltello, 'knife'), the name of a short, broad-bladed sabre
Sabre

The sabre or saber is a kind of backsword that usually but not always has a curved, single-edged blade and a rather large Guard , covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger....
 popular in Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 during the 16th century, via the French
French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
 coutelas, or coutelace, a form of coutel, modern couteau, a knife
Knife

A knife is a handheld sharp-edged instrument consisting of a handle attached to a blade that is used for cutting. Knives were used at least Stone Age, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools....
, from Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 cultellus, diminutive of culter, a plowshare
Plowshare

In agriculture, a plowshare is a component of a plow . It is the cutting or leading edge of a moldboard which closely follows the coulter when plowing ....
, or cutting instrument. A soldier armed with it can be called coutillier.

Two variations appear in English: curtelace, where the r represents probably the l of the original Latin word, or is a further variant of the second variation; and curtelaxe, often spelled as two words, curtal axe, where the prefix curtal is confused with various English words derived from the Latin curtus such as curtan, curtal and curtail, which all mean shortened. However in every case the weapon to which these various forms apply is a broad cutting or slashing sword.

History and Use

Grand Turk(37)
The cutlass is best known as the sailor
Sailor

A sailor or mariner is a person who navigates ships or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses....
's weapon of choice, the naval side arm
Side arm

A side arm is a firearm, usually a pistol, which is worn on the body in a holster to permit immediate access and use. A side arm is typically required equipment for Police personnel and military personnel....
, likely because it was robust enough to hack through heavy rope
Rope

A rope is a length of fibers, twisted or braided together to improve strength for pulling and connecting. It has tensile strength but is too flexible to provide compressive strength ....
s, canvas
Canvas

Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain weave cloth used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other functions where sturdiness is required....
, and wood. It was also short enough to use in relatively close quarters, such as during boarding
Boarding (attack)

Boarding, in its simplest sense, refers to the insertion onto a ship's deck of people. However, when it is classified as an attack, in most contexts, it refers to the insertion of personnel that are not members of the crew by another party....
 actions, in the rigging
Rigging

Rigging is, on sailboats and sailing ships, the collection of apparatus through which the force of the wind is transferred to the ship in order to propel it forward....
, or below decks. Another advantage to the cutlass was its simplicity of use. The cutlass required less training than the rapier
Rapier

A rapier is a relatively slender, sharply pointed sword, used mainly for thrusting attacks, mainly in use in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries....
 or small sword
Small sword

The small sword or smallsword is a light one-handed sword designed for thrusting. The small sword evolved out of the longer and heavier rapier of the late Renaissance....
, and was more effective as a combat weapon than the full sized sword. The cutlasses portrayed in films set during the Golden Age of Piracy
Golden Age of Piracy

The Golden Age of Piracy is a common designation given the period roughly spanning from the 1650s to the 1720s. The decade of 1715?1725 experienced a substantial increase in the number of pirates operating throughout the Caribbean, the Americas coast, the Indian Ocean, and the western coast of Africa....
 (1650-1720s) are often anachronistic 19th century weapons.

The cutlass was also used on land, particularly by cavalry
Cavalry

The Cavalry is the second oldest of the Combat Arms, and as soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback in combat, it represents the mobility and offensive power of the armed forces....
men such as the mamluk
Mamluk

A mamluk was a slavery soldier who converted to Islam and served the Muslim caliphs and the Ayyubid sultans from the 9th to the 13th centuries....
s, since its curved blade made it useful for slashing combat. In times of peace the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
 supplied no arms, and the janissaries
Janissary

The Janissaries comprised infantry units that formed the Ottoman Empire sultan's household troops and bodyguards. The force was created by the Sultan Murad I from Christian slaves in the 14th century and was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II in 1826 with the Auspicious Incident....
 on service in the capital of Constantinople
Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
 were armed only with clubs; they were forbidden to carry any arms save a cutlass, the only exception being at the frontier posts.

A cutlass is as often an agricultural implement and tool as it is a weapon (cf. machete
Machete

The machete is a large Cleaver -like cutting tool. The blade is typically long and usually under thick. In the English language, an equivalent term is matchet, though the name 'machete' is more commonly known....
, to which the same comment applies), being used commonly in rainforest
Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests

Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests , also known as tropical moist forests, are a tropical and subtropical forest biome.Tropical and subtropical forest regions with lower rainfall are home to tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests and tropical and subtropical coniferous forests....
 and sugarcane
Sugarcane

Sugarcane is a genus of 6 to 37 species of tall perennial plant Poaceae , native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Old World. They have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar and measure 2 to 6 meters tall....
 areas, such as the Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
 and Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
. Woodsmen and soldiers in the 17th and 18th centuries used a similar short and broad backsword
Backsword

A backsword is a sword having a blade with only one edge. The back of the sword is often the thickest part of the blade and acts to support and strengthen it....
 called a hanger.

Cutlasses are famous for being used by pirates
Piracy

Piracy is a warlike act committed by a foreign nonstate actor, especially robbery or crime committed at sea, on a river, or sometimes on shore, either from a vessel flying no national flag, or one flying a national flag but without authorization from a nation....
, although there is no reason to believe that Caribbean buccaneer
Buccaneer

The buccaneers were Piracy who attacked Habsburg Spain and France shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate....
s invented them, as has sometimes been claimed. However, the subsequent use of cutlasses by pirates is well documented in contemporary sources, notably by the pirate crews of William Fly
William Fly

Captain William Fly was an England pirate who raided New England shipping until he was captured by some of the crew of a seized ship. He was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts....
, William Kidd
William Kidd

William "Captain" Kidd was a Scotland sailor remembered for his trial and execution for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean....
, and Stede Bonnet
Stede Bonnet

Stede Bonnet was an early 18th-century Barbados piracy, sometimes called "the gentleman pirate" because he was a moderately wealthy landowner before turning to a life of crime....
. French historian Alexandre Exquemelin
Alexandre Exquemelin

Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin was a French writer most known as the author of one of the most important sourcebooks of seventeenth century pirate, first published in Dutch as De Americaensche Zee-Roovers, in Amsterdam, Jan ten Hoorn, in 1678....
 reports the buccaneer Francois l'Ollonais
François l'Ollonais

Jean-David Nau , better known as Fran?ois l'Olonnais, was a France pirate active in the Caribbean during the 1660s. In his 1684 account The History of the Buccaneers of America, Alexander Exquemelin notes l'Olonnais' place of birth as being Les Sables-d'Olonne....
 using a cutlass as early as 1667. Pirates used these weapons for intimidation as much as for combat, often needing no more than to grip their hilts to induce a crew to surrender, or beating captives with the flat of the blade to force their compliance or responsiveness to interrogation.

In 1936, the British
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
 Royal Navy
Royal Navy

The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British Armed Forces . From the mid-18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early 1940s....
 announced that from then on cutlasses would only be carried for ceremonial
Ceremonial weapon

A ceremonial weapon is an object used for ceremony purposes to display power or authority. They are often used in parades, and as part of dress uniforms....
 duties and not used in landing parties.

The cutlass remained an official weapon in United States Navy
United States Navy

The United States Navy is the navy of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy currently has approximately 331,682 personnel on active duty as of 31 December 2008 and 124,000 in the United States Navy Reserve....
 stores until 1949, though seldom used in training after the early 1930s. The last new model of cutlass adopted by the US Navy was the Model 1917; although cutlasses made during World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 were called the Model 1941, they were only a slightly modified variant of the Model 1917. A United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps

The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing Military power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to rapidly deliver Marine Air-Ground Task Force....
 engineer
Combat engineering

Combat engineering is a combat arms role of using the knowledge, tools and techniques of engineering by troops in peace and war, but specifically in combat....
 NCO
United States Marine Corps enlisted rank insignia

The chart below represents the current enlisted rank insignia of the United States Marine Corps.This chart represents the United States Marine Corps enlisted rank insignia with seniority increasing right-to-left inside a given pay grade....
 is reported to have killed an enemy with a Model 1941 cutlass at Incheon during the Korean War
Korean War

The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korea and South Korea regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953....
. A cutlass is still carried by the Chief Petty Officer
Chief Petty Officer

Chief Petty Officer is a Non-commissioned officer or equivalent in many navy....
 of recruit divisions at US Navy Recruit Training Command.

See also

  • Cutlass bayonet
  • Elgin pistol


Sources and references

(incomplete)*