scimitar

• cimeter, cimiter, cymeter, semitar (obsolete)
• scimiter
• scimetar

First attested in 1548. From Middle French cimeterre (15c.) or directly from Italian scimitarra, possibly from an unknown Ottoman Turkish word, ultimately from Persian شمشیر (šamšir, “sword”). Doublet of shamshir.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪmɪtɑːɹ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪmɪtə(ɹ)/

• Audio pronunciation

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪmɪtə(ɹ)

scimitar (plural scimitars)

1. A sword of Persian origin that features a curved blade.

   Hyponyms: shamshir, saif, tulwar, kilij

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 167, columns 1–2:

     The Prince of Morocco:
     […] By this Symitare,
     That ſlew the Sophie, and a Perſian Prince
     That won three fields of Sultan Solyman,
     I would ore-ſtare the ſterneſt eies that looke,
     Out-braue the heart moſt daring on the earth:
     Plucke the yong ſucking Cubs from the ſhe Beare,
     Yea, mocke the Lion when he rors for pray
     To win the Ladie. […]

   • 2022 April 12, Helen Lewis, “Among Europe’s Ex-Royals”, in The Atlantic‎:

     Next door is a room devoted to Albanian history (“what a lovely scimitar,” I find myself exclaiming, my reserves of small talk inadequate at the sight of the family’s sword collection), […]

2. A long-handled billhook.

• falchion

scimitar (third-person singular simple present scimitars, present participle scimitaring, simple past and past participle scimitared)

1. (transitive) To strike or slice with, or as if with, a scimitar.

• Ramistic