poleyn

English

Middle English polein(e) (“knee armor”), from Anglo-Norman polein (“knee armor”). Possibly related to poulaine (“pointed toe on a shoe”).[1]

poleyn (plural poleyns)

(historical) The part of medieval armour that protected the knee.
Rare form of poulaine (“(shoe with a) pointed toe”).
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:poleyn.

Tara Hamling, Catherine Richardson, Everyday Objects: Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture and its Meanings, Routledge (2016, →ISBN): The OED derives the later English use of the noun 'poulaine' from AngloNorman: 'poleine (1464–9 or earlier ...) and Middle French, French (now hist.) poulaine ... use as noun of feminine of poulain (adjective) Polish ... the shoes and thir characteristic long toe being so called on account of their supposed Polish origin ..., OED Online […] The MED records English variants on the word from about 1388, but applied to a piece of armour, 'protecting the knee and fastened to the thigh piece', which probably stems from Old French usage, 'polein(e), n.2', MED, […]

Borrowed from Old French polain (modern French poulain), from Late Latin pullāmen.

poleyn (uncountable)

“pullain, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2019-01-18.

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