Chainmail

Chainmail (also chain mail, chain maille, or just mail or maille) is a type of armour or jewelry that consists of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. Mail can generally be punctured by a spear or shorn by the blow from a heavy axe or sword (although riveted chainmail is much stronger), and its flexibility means that its wearer is still vulnerable to blunt weapons. Nevertheless, it was an effective and popular defense for its ability to stop cutting weapons from piercing the skin. Medieval physicians could usually set broken bones, but when it came to preventing infection they were woefully inadequate. Thus the mail was weak in defending against wounds which could be more easily mended but strong against those to which the soldier was most vulnerable. The word chainmail is of relatively recent coinage, having been in use only since the 1700s, prior to this it was refered to simply as mail http://www.regia.org/warfare/Mail.htm.

Etymology

The word chainmail is a pleonasm: in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, chain was the English name for it, while maille was the common French name for it. This—and the alternative spellings "maile" and "maille"—derive through the Italian maglia, from the Latin macula, meaning "net".

Related Topics:
Pleonasm - Middle Ages - Renaissance - English - French - Italian - Latin

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