backsword
nounEtymology From back + sword.
1
A sword with one sharp edge.
- It [the dáo of the Nágá tribe, south-east of Assam] is a thick, heavy backsword, eighteen inches long, with a bevel where the point should be, worn at the waist in a half-scabbard of wood, and used for digging as well as killing.1884, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “The Sword: What is It?”, in The Book of the Sword, London: Chatto and Windus, […], →OCLC, page 140:
- One afternoon, as the missionary and I were sitting outside our tents, my attention was attracted towards a group of sepahis engaged under a banyantree, playing the game of backsword […]1842, The Asiatic Journal […] :
- Derived terms
- backswordman