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Correct word / spelling to use for medieval armor made of interlocking metal rings?

The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
in Help / Advice Forum
Alright, I'm hopelessly confused:

Is it 'mail', 'maille', 'chain mail', 'chainmaille'... or something else entirely? I've seen all of those terms basically used interchangeably, with a few sources very smugly claiming that the word they use is the absolutely most proper term, with everyone else just using some pop culture term.


This isn't the most important thing ever, but I like to use the best words I can when I'm writing descriptions.

With Love and Courage

Posts

  • DaenrisDaenris Registered User regular
    Chain mail I think would be understood the most widely. Mail can be used to refer more generally to a number of different types of armors, not solely chain mail. Mail/maille is likely just semantics unless you're absolutely trying to be time-period accurate, and even then there are other possible variants.

  • QuidQuid Definitely not a banana Registered User regular
    Chain mail or mail are fine.

  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    'maille' and other such spellings are adaptations of old languages (probably middle english but I'm not a linguist); in modern writing you would just use mail. The only reasons not to would be if 1) you are doing some kind of period writing and it's specifically important to use archaic spelling or 2) you're trying to convince people how legit you are.

    I'm pretty sure 'chainmail' is a single word (as opposed to chain mail), but that might be wrong

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  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    My understanding is that mail is the interlocking metal ring bits. I agree that if people start with the stupid spelling games then glare at them, mightily.

    Plate Mail (the typical "Knights Armor" from movies) is supposedly from Plate and Mail since aside from the big shiny solid metal bits you also wore mail underneath and especially around the joints which would otherwise be vulnerable.

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  • FantasmaFantasma Registered User regular
    edited March 2014
    Perhaps this can help you :smile:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamellar_armour

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laminar_armour

    Laminar armour (from Latin: lamina - layer), sometimes confusingly referred to as "banded mail", is an armour made from horizontal overlapping rows or bands of solid armour plates,[1] as opposed to lamellar armour which is made from individual armor scales laced together to form a solid looking strip of armor.

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  • MulysaSemproniusMulysaSempronius but also susie nyRegistered User regular
    Spelling was not at all formalized at that period of time, so there was no "correct" spelling. Chain mail is what people use nowadays.

    If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
  • Mego ThorMego Thor "I say thee...NAY!" Registered User regular
    I always wrote "chain mail" on my character sheets.

    kyrcl.png
  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    chain mail is fine!

    Fixer Restorations -/- Satan's Wish List!!!!
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    IANAMWAAH (I Am Not A Medieval Weapons And Armor Historian) but I believe "mail" is most accurate in modern English. "Chain mail"/"chainmail" is redundant but more commonly used. You're probably better off using "chainmail" though because that's what people seem to be most familiar with.

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  • Pi-r8Pi-r8 Registered User regular
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".

  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    edited March 2014
    One explanation why one can find the word "mail" in reference to other types of armor is that mail was so widely used that the word eventually became synonymous with armor, thus leading to "chain mail" somewhere down along the line.

    "Maille" is the French spelling, by the way.

    Platy on
  • Donovan PuppyfuckerDonovan Puppyfucker A dagger in the dark is worth a thousand swords in the morningRegistered User regular
    Pi-r8 wrote: »
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".

    And "plate mail" is like saying?

  • Grey PaladinGrey Paladin Registered User regular
    Pi-r8 wrote: »
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".
    Platypus Beirut wrote: »
    One explanation why one can find the word "mail" in reference to other types of armor is that mail was so widely used that the word eventually became synonymous with armor, thus leading to "chain mail" somewhere down along the line.

    "Maille" is the French spelling, by the way.
    This. Mail will do.
    chrishallett83 wrote: »
    Pi-r8 wrote: »
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".

    And "plate mail" is like saying?
    An eastern variation of lamellar where plates are sewn over mail.

    "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible." - T.E. Lawrence
  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    chrishallett83 wrote: »
    Pi-r8 wrote: »
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".

    And "plate mail" is like saying?

    Plate and mail. I went over that earlier in the thread. The plate is the big old metal plates while the mail is the linked loops of chain worn underneath to protect joints. The 'and' got dropped because people are lazy.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • Hahnsoo1Hahnsoo1 Make Ready. We Hunt.Registered User, Moderator, Administrator admin
    Pi-r8 wrote: »
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".
    So... like one of these? (link is to amazon.com's listing of the Ka-Bar ZK-Death Dagger Knife) :D

    8i1dt37buh2m.png
  • PlatyPlaty Registered User regular
    Actually full gothic plate armor only had a mail skirt. However this type of plate armor evolved out of mail which had plates added to it for extra protection.

  • JuliusJulius Captain of Serenity on my shipRegistered User regular
    Wikipedia says it's just mail and wikipedia is always right.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_%28armour%29

  • azith28azith28 Registered User regular
    Isnt "Ring mail" different from "Chain mail" or is it just a larger looped connection?

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  • RendRend Registered User regular
    azith28 wrote: »
    Isnt "Ring mail" different from "Chain mail" or is it just a larger looped connection?

    According to wikipedia, Ring Mail is basically the same thing that you know as "studded leather," but
    the wiki wrote:
    No actual examples of this type of armour have ever been found on European archaeological findings[/quote.

  • DjeetDjeet Registered User regular
    chrishallett83 wrote: »
    Pi-r8 wrote: »
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".

    And "plate mail" is like saying?

    encumbered

  • XaquinXaquin Right behind you!Registered User regular
    Just call it Obsidian Mail of the Whale and you'll be good!

    Fixer Restorations -/- Satan's Wish List!!!!
  • Typhoid MannyTyphoid Manny Registered User regular
    Pi-r8 wrote: »
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".

    but chainmail isn't the only kind of mail. there's also ringmail and scalemail and at least one other that i can't remember right now

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  • RendRend Registered User regular
    Typhoid Manny wrote: »
    Pi-r8 wrote: »
    "chain mail" is like saying "dagger knife".

    but chainmail isn't the only kind of mail. there's also ringmail and scalemail and at least one other that i can't remember right now

    These days that's what those words mean, but in ye oldene tymes those would have been known as Ring Armor and Scale Armor. We may use mail as a synonym for armor, but in period it meant chain.

  • DarkewolfeDarkewolfe Registered User regular
    It's also not clear how many of these wide varieties of armor were actually known and commonly used (aside from chain and plate). Lots of them were romanticized later, either during the Victorian era or when Gary Gygax needed to write another D&D book.

    What is this I don't even.
  • tarnoktarnok Registered User regular
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    ... or when Gary Gygax needed to write another D&D book.

    Seriously. How many fuckin' words do we need for a pole axe?

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  • CogCog What'd you expect? Registered User regular
    tarnok wrote: »
    Darkewolfe wrote: »
    ... or when Gary Gygax needed to write another D&D book.

    Seriously. How many fuckin' words do we need for a pole axe?

    A LOT.
    oots0136.gif


  • GaslightGaslight Registered User regular
    Let me help you with that, as I thought of the same comic but you beat me to posting it:

    oots0136.gif



  • NijaNija Registered User regular
    I remember hearing that joke on a old Monty Python skit re: cheese.

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