lamboys

See also: Lamboys

English

Etymology

Unclear. Perhaps from French lambeaux (“shreds, tatters; the fringe on a military cloak”), or perhaps a misreading of jamboys, jambeaus (“leg armor”).

Noun

lamboys pl (normally plural, singular lamboy)

1. (historical) Bases (skirts made of armour)

   Coordinate terms: tonlet, base

   • 1922, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Guide to the Collections, page 30:

     On the wall back of these cases is the skirt (lamboys) of a suit of armor said to have belonged to Henry VIII of England. Near by on the right are swords of the  […]

Further reading

• 1983, The Official Encyclopedia of Antiques and Collectibles, →ISBN:

  TONLET. Plate armor that consists of an expansive, bell-shaped skirt with wide vertically fluted folds; of medieval origin, it was also called a base, lamboy or jamboy.

• James Augustus Henry Murray, Henry Bradley, William Alexander Craigie, Charles Talbut Onions (1908) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, page 36: “[…] the meaning is obscure, and it has been suspected that lamboys is a mistake for some form of JAMBERS or JAMBEAUX.”
• 1862, Hensleigh Wedgwood (M.A.), Dictionary of English Etymology, page 302:

  Lambeaux or labeaux was also the name given to the fringe (laciniis) hanging from the military cloak - Duc.; OE. lamboys, the drapery which came from below the tasses over the thighs.