Dictionary Definition
lance
Noun
2 an implement with a shaft and barbed point used
for catching fish [syn: spear, gig, fizgig, fishgig]
3 a surgical knife with a pointed double-edged
blade; used for punctures and small incisions [syn: lancet]
Verb
1 move quickly, as if by cutting one's way;
"Planes lanced towards the shore"
2 pierce with a lance, as in a knights'
fight
3 open by piercing with a lancet; "lance a
boil"
User Contributed Dictionary
see Lance
English
Extensive Definition
The term lance has become a
catchall for a variety of different pole weapons
based on the spear. The
name is derived from lancea, Roman
auxiliaries' javelin,
although according to the OED,
the word may be of Iberian
origin.
A lance in the original sense
is a light throwing spear, or javelin. The English verb to
launch "fling, hurl, throw" is derived from the term (via Old
French lancier), as well as the more rare or poetical to lance.
Paradoxically, the term from the 17th century came to refer
specifically to spears not thrown, used for thrusting by heavy
cavalry, and especially in jousting. A thrusting spear
which is used by infantry is usually referred to as a pike. The
first use of the lance in this sense was made by the Sarmatian and
Parthian
cataphractes from
ca. the 3rd century
BC.
Because of the extreme
stopping power of a thrusting spear, it quickly became a popular
weapon of footmen in the Late
Middle Ages. These eventually led to the rise of the longest
type of spears ever, the pike.
Ironically, this adaptation of the cavalry lance to infantry use
was largely tasked with stopping lance-armed cavalry charges.
During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, these weapons, both
mounted and unmounted, were so effective that lancers and pike men not only became a
staple of every Western army, but also became highly sought-after
mercenaries.
In Europe, a jousting
lance was a variation of the knight's lance which was modified
from its original war design. In jousting, the lance tips would
usually be blunt, often spread out like a cup or furniture foot, to
provide a wider impact surface designed to unseat the opposing
rider without spearing him through. The center of the shaft of such
lances could be designed to be hollow, in order for it to break on
impact, as a further safeguard against impalement. They were often 4 m
long or longer, and had special hand guards built into the lance,
often tapering for a considerable portion of the weapon's length.
These are the versions that can most often be seen at medieval re-enactment festivals. In
war, lances were much more like stout spears, long and balanced for
one handed use, and with decidedly sharp tips.
The mounted lance saw a
renaissance in the 18th century with the demise of the pike;
heavily armoured cuirassiers used 2-3 m lances
as their main weapons. They were usually used for the breakneck
charge against the enemy infantry.
The Crimean War
saw the most infamous though ultimately unsuccessful use of the
lance, the
Charge of the Light Brigade.
After the Western
introduction of the horse
to
Native Americans, the Plains
Indians also took up the lance, probably independently, as
American cavalry of the time were sabre- and pistol-armed, firing forward at
full gallop. The natural adaptation of the throwing spear to a
stouter thrusting and charging spear appears to be an inevitable
evolutionary trend in the military use of the horse, and a rapid
one at that.
American cavalry and Canadian
North Western Mounted Police used a fine lance as a flagstaff. In 1886, the first
official musical ride was performed in Regina,
this fine ceremonial lance plays a significant role in the
choreography. The world's oldest continuous Mounted Police unit in
the world, being the New South Wales Mounted Police, housed at
Redfern Barracks, Sydney, Australia, carries a lance with a navy
blue and white pennant in all ceremonial occasions.
During the Boer
War, British troops successfully used the lance against the
Boers in the first few battles, but the Boers adopted the use of
trench
warfare, machine guns
and high powered rifles.
The combined effect was devastating, so that British cavalry were
remodeled as high mobility infantry units ('dragoons') fighting on foot. It
was not until the development of the tank in World War I
that mounted attacks were once again possible, but its mechanical
technology doomed both the horse cavalry and the
lance.
"Lance" is also the name given
by some anthropologists to the light flexible javelins
(technically, darts)
thrown by atlatls
(spear-throwing
sticks), but these are usually called "atlatl javelins". Some
were not much larger than arrows,
and were typically feather-fletched like an arrow, and
unlike the vast majority of spears and javelins (one exception
would be several instances of the many types of ballista bolt, a
mechanically-thrown spear). Lance (unit organization): The small
unit that surrounded a knight when we went into battle during the
14th and 15th centuries. A lance might have consisted of one or two
squires, the knight himself, one to three men-at-arms, and possibly
an archer. Lances were often combined under the banner of a higher
ranking nobleman to form companies of knights that would act as an
ad-hoc unit.
References
- Delbrück, Hans. History of the Art of War, originally published in 1920; University of Nebraska Press (reprint), 1990 (trans. J. Renfroe Walter). Volume III: Medieval Warfare.
External links
- From Lance to Pistol: The Evolution of Mounted Soldiers from 1550 to 1600 (myArmoury.com article)
lance in Bulgarian:
Кавалерийско копие
lance in Danish:
Lanse
lance in German:
Lanze
lance in Spanish:
Lanza
lance in French:
Lance
lance in Italian:
Lancia
lance in Hebrew:
רומח
n
iklbsmfglknbmfgknmsfglkjsmngkhsfmgkhmnskfgnhklmfgjhkhjmlkg
lance in Hungarian:
Gönder
lance in Dutch:
Lans
lance in Japanese: ランス
(槍)
lance in Norwegian Nynorsk:
Lanse
lance in Polish:
Lanca
lance in Portuguese:
Lança
lance in Slovenian:
Sulica
lance in Finnish:
Peitsi
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
amputate, assegai, auger, ax, bayonet, bisect, bite, bore, bowl, broach, butcher, carve, cast, catapult, chop, chuck, chunk, cleave, countersink, cut, cut away, cut in two, cut off,
dagger, dart, dash, dichotomize, dirk, dissever, drill, empierce, excise, fire, fissure, fix, fling, flip, fork, gash, gore, gouge, gouge out, hack, halve, heave, hew, hole, honeycomb, hurl, hurtle, impale, incise, javelin, jerk, jigsaw, knife, lancet, launch, let fly, lob, needle, open, pare, pass, peg, pelt, penetrate, perforate, pierce, pike, pink, pitch, pitchfork, plunge in, poniard, prick, prune, punch, puncture, put, put the shot, ream, ream out, rend, riddle, rive, run through, saber, saw, scissor, serve, sever, shy, skewer, slash, slice, sling, slit, snap, snip, spear, spike, spit, split, stab, stick, stiletto, sunder, sword, tap, tear, throw, tilt, toss, transfix, transpierce, trepan, trephine, whittle