Meaning: a horse's head-armour, or as Cotgrave has it:
Logofascination: 2. Partly due to the 'there's a word for everything' factor, and partly because of the wide and wild variety of the spelling. I had it written down as chanfron, and Wikipedia has chanpron, but ngrams finds that chamfron is most popular (using the word popular quite loosely) and the OED only gives us chamfron or chamfrain.
In the wild: The Viennese museum of Arms and Armour, back in 2011. I told you I hoard words; I thought it was time to get onto my back-catalogue. It also turns up in Cotgrave, who I do recommend browsing.
Usefulness: 4, unless you're writing historical fiction, or touring an armoury museum.
the front-stall, head-peece, or forehead-piece, of a barbed horse.Bonus word: a horse's armour is bard(ing), although no-one's quite sure why. This has since extended to the practice of wrapping bacon around poultry when roasting; good to see a useful word so deliciously recycled.
Logofascination: 2. Partly due to the 'there's a word for everything' factor, and partly because of the wide and wild variety of the spelling. I had it written down as chanfron, and Wikipedia has chanpron, but ngrams finds that chamfron is most popular (using the word popular quite loosely) and the OED only gives us chamfron or chamfrain.
In the wild: The Viennese museum of Arms and Armour, back in 2011. I told you I hoard words; I thought it was time to get onto my back-catalogue. It also turns up in Cotgrave, who I do recommend browsing.
Usefulness: 4, unless you're writing historical fiction, or touring an armoury museum.
I think you meant that you "hoard" words - tsk!
ReplyDeleteToo true, kind Anon, and now sorted. The correct spelling right there in my blog description too; tsk indeed.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I have been enjoying imagining what a horde of words would be like; I suspect Twitter would qualify.