baldric

A late-18th- to early-19th-century baldric (sense 1) used to hold a pistol, from Catalonia, Spain.^{[n 1]}

A drum major of the III Marine Expeditionary Force Band, United States Marine Corps, wearing a ceremonial baldric (sense 1).

From Middle English baudrik, bauderik, baudry (“belt worn over the shoulder or around the waist for carrying a sword, etc., baldric; (by extension) type of leather strap”),^[1] from Old French baldré, baldrei, baudré (“crossbelt, sword-belt”) (modern French baudrier); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Frankish *balterād, from earlier *baltiraidī (“belt gear, belt equipment”) (compare Old Occitan baldrei, baudrat), from Frankish *balti (“belt”), from Latin balteus (possibly borrowed from Etruscan 𐌁𐌀𐌋𐌕𐌄𐌀 (baltea, “belt”)) + Frankish *(ga)raidī (“equipment”).^[2] However, the Oxford English Dictionary states that a derivation from balteus does not satisfactorily account for the bald- spelling in the various languages.^[3] Middle High German balderich, belderich, derived from the Old French word, may have influenced the Middle English form.

Sense 2.3 (“zodiac”) is from its resemblance to a belt ornamented with jewels (sense 1).^[3]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔːldɹɪk/,

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɔldɹɪk/, (cot–caught merger) /ˈbɑl-/
• Hyphenation: bald‧ric

baldric (plural baldrics)

2. A broad belt, originally of leather and often richly ornamented, worn diagonally from shoulder to hip (across the breast and under the opposite arm), which was formerly used to hold a sword, a bugle, etc., and is now chiefly worn for ceremonial purposes; also (loosely), any belt.
   • 1534 (date written), Thomas More, “A Treatice vpon the Passion of Chryste (Vnfinished) . The Fyrst Poynt, the Fall of Aungelles.”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, , London: Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, page 1272, column 2:

     But now how many men are there proude of that that is not theyrs at al? Is there no man proude of keping another mannes gate? […] [W]hat a brag-kyng maketh a beareward wͭ [with] his ſyluer buttened bawdrike, for pride of another mannes bere?

   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 29, page 97:

     Athvvart his breſt a bauldrick braue he vvare, / That ſhind, like tvvinkling ſtars, vvith ſtones moſt pretious rare.

   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, Much Adoe about Nothing. , quarto edition, London: V S for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley, published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], signature , verso:

     [B]ut that I vvill haue a rechate vvinded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an inuiſible baldricke, all vvomen ſhall pardon mee: becauſe I vvill not doe them the vvrong to miſtruſt any, I vvill doe my ſelfe the right to truſt none: […]

   • 1715, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book III”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: W Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott , →OCLC, page 20, lines 415–416:

     A radiant Baldric, o'er his Shoulder ty'd, / Suſtains the Svvord that glitters at his ſide.

   • 1832 December (indicated as 1833), Alfred Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott”, in Poems, London: Edward Moxon, , →OCLC, part the third, page 14:

     And from his blazon'd baldric slung, / A mighty silver bugle hung, / And, as he rode, his armour rung, / Beside remote Shalott.

   • 1843, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], “Earl Warwick, the King-maker”, in The Last of the Barons, volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, , →OCLC, book II (The King’s Court), page 169:

     Fore George, I would not ask thee to buckle my baldrick when the war-steeds were snorting, but I would trust Isabel with the links of my hauberk.

   • 1884, Richard F[rancis] Burton, “The Sword in Babylonia, Assyria, and Persia, and Ancient India”, in The Book of the Sword, London: Chatto and Windus, , →OCLC, pages 205–206:

     The longer weapon is carried by a narrow bauldric slung over the right shoulder and meeting another cord-shaped band at the breast, in fact suggesting our antiquated cross-belts. The Sword is always worn on the left side. […] A soldier's bauldric is coloured red, like the wood of the bows and arrows.

   • 1922 June, H[enry] U[sher] H[all], “Great Benin Royal Altar”, in The Museum Journal, volume XIII, number 2, Philadelphia, Pa.: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 168:

     The figure on the left, holding the severed head of the ox, has removed his sword with the baldric from which it is suspended and given it to his companion, who holds it beside his own with the baldric swinging.

   • 1998 November, Raymond E[lias] Feist, “Encounter”, in Krondor: The Betrayal  (The Riftwar Legacy; I), New York, N.Y.: HarperTorch, HarperCollinsPublishers, published February 2001, →ISBN, page 15:

     The man facing Locklear had his head covered with a red bandanna, and over his shoulder was a baldric from which a cutlass had hung. The cutlass was now carving through the air at Locklear's head.

   • 2001, Valerio Massimo Manfredi, chapter 27, in Iain Halliday, transl., Alexander: The Sands of Ammon , London: Macmillan, →ISBN, page 167:

     The face of the man who stood before him was hidden by a Corinthian helmet. His bronze breastplate was decorated in silver, and he carried his sword hanging from a chain-mail baldric. Over his shoulders was a cloak of blue linen that the evening breeze filled like a sail.

3. (obsolete)
   1. (by extension) A (usually leather) strap from which the clapper of a bell is suspended.
      • 1585 (date written), J C L Stahlschmidt, “Part III. Inscriptions.”, in The Church Bells of Kent: Their Inscriptions, Founders, Uses and Traditions, London: Elliot Stock, , published 1887, →OCLC, page 276:

        [P]aid to the Collermaker of Leawsam for a bawdricke for the great bell … … … iijs.

        Entry from A Bocke of the Accountes off the Churche Wardens Called a Ledgere Begininge the XIJ Day of July in the Yeare of Our Lorde Gode 1554.

      • 1615, Thomas Thomas, “The Bawdricke of a bell-clapper”, in Thomæ Thomasii Dictionarium , 10th edition, London: Iohannis Legati, celeberrimæ Academiæ Cantabrigiensis typographi, →OCLC, column 1:

        The Bawdricke of a bell-clapper. Ropalicorigia.

      • 1883, Frederick George Lee, “The Church, Its History and Antiquities”, in The History, Description, and Antiquities of the Prebendal Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Thame, in the County and Diocese of Oxford, , London: Mitchell and Hughes, , →OCLC, columns 18–19:

        The Bells were evidently a constant source of expense, and very large sums were spent in their re-casting and re-hanging. Scarcely a year passed without some new bell-wheel, bawdricke, rope or clapper being required.

   2. (by extension) A necklace.
      • 1530 July 28 (Gregorian calendar), Iohan Palsgraue [i.e., John Palsgrave], “The Table of Substantyues”, in Lesclarcissement de la langue francoyse⸝ , : [Richard Pynson] fynnysshed by Iohan Haukyns, →OCLC, 3rd boke, folio xix, recto, column 1; reprinted Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, October 1972, →OCLC:

        Baldrike for a ladyes necke carcan s[ubstantive] ma[le]

   4. (figurative) The zodiac (“belt-like region of the celestial sphere, approximately eight degrees north and south of the ecliptic, which includes the apparent path of the sun, moon, and visible planets”).
      • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , part II (books IV–VI), London: [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 11, page 190:

        [S]he [Astraea] hath novv an euerlaſting place, / Mongſt thoſe tvvelue ſignes, vvhich nightly vve doe ſee / The heauens bright-ſhining baudricke to enchace; […]

      • 1621, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Sect 13. Meditatio decimatertia.”, in Hadassa: Or The History of Queene Ester: With Meditations thereupon, Diuine and Morall, London: Richard Moore, , →OCLC, signature K, verso:

        Right fondly haue the Poets pleaſ'd to ſay, / From earth the faire Aſtræa’s fled avvay, / And in the ſhining Baudrike takes her ſeat, / To make the number of the ſignes compleat.

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