jambeau

English

Alternative forms

• giambeu [16th c.]

Etymology

From Middle English iambeau(s) (compare jamber), from an Anglo-Norman [Term?] derivative of Old French jambe (“leg”): compare Old French jambiere. See jamb (noun). Compare lamboy(s).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒæm.boʊ/

Noun

jambeau (plural jambeaus or jambeaux)

1. (historical, chiefly in the plural) A piece of armour for the leg (especially below the knee), a greave. [14th–16th c.]

   Synonyms: jamber, jamb, jambe

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi:

     The mortall steele despiteously entayld / Deepe in their flesh, quite through the yron walles, / That a large purple streme adown their giambeux falles.

   • 1984, Julian May, The Nonborn King ; The Adversary, page 200:

     [He suspected] a chink in his hinder jambeau, for there was a trickling at the back of his leg, although he felt no pain.

   • 2001, J. Robert King, Mad Merlin, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 39:

     Jambeaus and sollerets hung loose from his shaky ankles. Cuisses and brassards were bashed as by countless bludgeons. Under a shirt of chain mail, the man's chest was caved in and panting.

   • 2010, Harold Bloom, Ray Bradbury, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 27:

     After all, a knight is not a knight without his jambeaus and sollerets, […]

   • 2011, Thomas Everill, Chamber of the Dragon's Soul: Awakenings, AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 80:

     A cuish, knee piece, and jambeau protected their legs. All the armor was hammered out to favor scales […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:jambeau.
2. A certain fish.
   • 2016, David B. Snyder, George H. Burgess, Marine Fishes of Florida, Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM, →ISBN:

     Spotted spikefishes and jambeaus are diamond shaped, about as long as they are high, with the greatest depth occurring at the tips of the stout first dorsal and anal spines, near the midbody. The small caudal fin is broadly rounded.