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fascine knife

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 11 January 2025

Etymology

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A c. 1861 portrait of Private Henry Augustus Moore of the Confederate States Army in the United States holding a fascine knife.
An 1848 fascine knife used by the Swedish Army.

From fascine +‎ knife, from one use of such knives which was to cut wood for fascines and gabions (“cylindrical wicker baskets or cages filled with earth or stones and used in fortifications, etc.”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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fascine knife (plural fascine knives)

  1. (military, weaponry, historical) A large, heavy knife or short sword used by 17th- to 19th-century artillery and infantry soldiers as a sidearm and a tool for cutting fascines (“cylindrical bundles of small sticks of wood, used for strengthening purposes”) and other things.
    • 1779 March 2 (date written), George Washington, “To Major General Nathanael Greene”, in John C[lement] Fitzpatrick, editor, The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources 1745–1799 […], volume 14 (January 12, 1779 – May 5, 1779), Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, published August 1956, →OCLC, page 178:
      2000 Canteens. 600 Camp Kettles. 200 Fascine Knives. […] It is to be presumed the troops will be provided with these articles.
    • [1876], W[illiam] S[mith] Cooke, compiler, “Servia”, in The Ottoman Empire and its Tributary States (Excepting Egypt), with a Sketch of Greece, London: W[illiam] Clowes and Son, […], →OCLC, page 162:
      The [artillery] men have a short rifle and bayonet, and carry also a fascine knife; 10 rounds of ammunition in the pouch.
    • 1888 September 29, “Toujours Pret” [pseudonym], “The Hospital Corps [letter to the editor]”, in The United States Army and Navy Journal, and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces, volume XXVI, number 5 (number 1316 overall), New York, N.Y.: [Army and Navy Journal, Inc.], →OCLC, page 93, column 3:
      The private should have a side arm of the following description: A short sword, about 20 inches long and 2½ inches wide at the grip; the blade to be ground sharp on one side and provided with saw teeth on the other; have a brass guard and buckhorn grip, and to be carried in a leather scabbard on a frog and common black belt. This is called in Europe a fascine knife, and a very useful implement it is in camp and on the field.
    • 1889, Cornelia McFadden, chapter V, in The Seamstress of Stettin, Cincinnati, Oh.: Curtis & Jennings; New York, N.Y.: Eaton & Mains, →OCLC, pages 141–142:
      Verily the man must feel as though he were in a dream; only a short time before, at a shoemaker's ordinary work, the knocking of his hammer mingling with the sighs of a sick wife, and now, fascine knife on hip, helmet on closely cropped head, officers' commands in ear, crowds of people, drums, music, and the shrill whistle of the locomotive!—to march far away to Bohemia; […]
    • 1891, Theodor Hertzka, chapter II, in Arthur Ransom, transl., Freeland: A Social Anticipation, London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC, book I, page 10:
      [I]f he were furnished with a hundred natives—whom he would get from the population on the coast—supplied with axes and fascine-knives, he would undertake to lead a caravan of beasts of burden to the Kenia without any delay worth mentioning.
    • 1911, [William] Balck, “The Formal Tactics of Infantry”, in Walter Krueger, transl., Tactics […], 4th edition, volumes I (Introduction and Formal Tactics of Infantry), Fort Leavenworth, Kan.: United States Cavalry Association, →OCLC, footnote ‡, page 39:
      Sappeur sections carry in addition a mattock or a pick apiece, and each ammunition carrier also carries a pick, a fascine knife, or a saw.
    • 2021, Bill Harriman, “Development: Blades for Firearms”, in Martin Pegler, editor, The Bayonet (Weapon; 78), Oxford, Oxfordshire: Osprey Publishing, →ISBN, page 28:
      Later, some military fascine knives were made with saw-toothed backs, notably the Prussian M1810, M1841 and M1855 Faschinenmesser. Fascine knives were widely issued to engineers, pioneers and foot-artillerymen; smaller numbers were issued to other arms as circumstances dictated.

Translations

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See also

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Further reading

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