Hurlbat

<h2 id="historical-references">Historical references</h2>
<ul><li>"Hurlebat", "Hurlebatte" and "Hurlebadde" are documented as a <a href="/facts/By-name/uUQxrjCC">by-name</a> in English <a href="/facts/Patent_roll/Ga92fxVL">patent rolls</a> as early as 1305, and are attested namely in <a href="/facts/Berkshire/jpDjJrl6">Berkshire</a>, <a href="/facts/Essex/cuUqAlzH">Essex</a> and <a href="/facts/Hampshire/omDltCzr">Hampshire</a> (i.e. the historical Essex and eastern <a href="/facts/Wessex/V7SlDm1k">Wessex</a>) at least until the early <a href="/facts/15th_century/UCjMywwB">15th century</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1">1</a><a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2">2</a></li>
<li>About 1440-1450, the hurlebatte was mentioned in Jacob's Well: An English Treatise on the Cleansing of Man's Conscience, in the context of leisurely <a href="/facts/Swordsmanship/tWXkvkWT">swordsmanship</a>: [P]leying at þe <a href="/facts/Classification_of_swords/YRqaTt9I">two hande swerd</a>, at swerd & <a href="/facts/Buckler/lcKtsW6g">bokelere</a>, & at <a href="/facts/Quarterstaff/vFtT9ov2">two pyked staf</a>, at þe hurlebatte [...].<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3">3</a></li>
<li>The 1538 Dictionary of syr <a href="/facts/Thomas_Elyot/0e3CzGVg">Thomas Elyot</a> knyght uses "hurlebatte" to translate a Latin word, and describes a throwing/retrieving action: Adides, short battes of a cubyte longe and an halfe, hauynge pikes of yron in theym, and were tyed to a lyne, that whanne they were throwen, he that did cast thẽ, mought plucke them agayn vnto him, hurlebattes. "Adides" is a misreading or printing error of aclides (see <a href="/facts/Aklys/1xL4hn20">aklys</a>).<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4">4</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Thomas_Blount_(lexicographer)/2F0Yck3R">Thomas Blount</a>'s 1707 English dictionary Glossographia Anglicana Nova defined "whorlbat" as a kind of Gauntlet with Straps and leaden Plummets, uſed by the ancient Heroes in their ſolemn Games and Exerciſes. (i.e. a <a href="/facts/Cestus_(boxing)/63yDhb92">cestus</a>)<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5">5</a></li>
<li>An 1837 edition of the <a href="/facts/A_Dictionary_of_the_English_Language/Df0XgWuM">Samuel Johnson dictionary</a> simply defined "hurlbat" (or "whirlbat") as "a weapon",<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:6" href="#fn:6">6</a></li>
<li>The 1854 edition of <a href="/facts/John_Craig_(geologist)/o3oTTaM2">John Craig</a>'s dictionary defined "hurlbat"/"whirlbat" as "an old kind of weapon".<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:7" href="#fn:7">7</a></li>
<li>The 1856 German-English dictionary of <a href="/facts/Johann_Gottfried_Fl%25C3%25BCgel/Tme3WWxv">Johann Gottfried Flügel</a> defined "whirlbat" (or "hurlibat") as a <a href="/facts/Club_(weapon)/DRU9yL8M">club</a> that is swung,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:8" href="#fn:8">8</a> such as a <a href="/facts/Mace_(bludgeon)/xYRodw7S">mace</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:9" href="#fn:9">9</a></li>
<li>In 1881, <a href="/facts/Surname/gca0qxem">surnames</a> derived from the by-name of 500 years ago were uncommon, and attested mainly throughout <a href="/facts/North_West_England/v0dYDpjK">North West England</a> to the <a href="/facts/Midlands/8mgY3qAe">Midlands</a> ("Hurlbutt"), in <a href="/facts/Leicester/zcSBswu3">Leicester</a> ("Hurlbert", "Hurlburt" and "Hurlbut"), <a href="/facts/Surrey/xTGvM5Vk">Surrey</a> ("Hurlbatt") and <a href="/facts/Tynemouth/QHlezb07">Tynemouth</a> ("Harlbut"). Except for Surrey, whose version is closest to the Medieval original, these regions are to the north of the name's distribution in the 14th-century.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:10" href="#fn:10">10</a></li>
<li>The 1911 <a href="/facts/Century_Dictionary_and_Cyclopedia/mR3cdS6j">Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia</a> notes it to be a kind of club or cudgel, so called because whirled around the head. It does not appear that such a weapon was thrown.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:11" href="#fn:11">11</a></li></ul>
Thus, in the <a href="/facts/Middle_Ages/RqzEKB9v">Middle Ages</a>, the term referred to an <a href="/facts/Aklys/1xL4hn20">aklys</a>-type spiked club attached to a string, used for throwing and perhaps as target in swordsmanship training. After 1700, however, this meaning became quickly obscure, and eventually the "hurlbat" was imagined as a bludgeoning weapon that was swung, not thrown.

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1">University of Michigan Middle English Dictionary [2022]. "hurle-bat(te". Retrieved 2022-09-01. <a href="/wiki/University_of_Michigan" target="_blank">/wiki/University_of_Michigan</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:2">George Redmonds; Turi King; David Hey (25 August 2011). Surnames, DNA, and Family History. Oxford University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-19-162036-2. <a href="978-0-19-162036-2" target="_blank">978-0-19-162036-2</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:3">George Redmonds; Turi King; David Hey (25 August 2011). Surnames, DNA, and Family History. Oxford University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-19-162036-2. <a href="978-0-19-162036-2" target="_blank">978-0-19-162036-2</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:4">Gabriele Stein (30 January 2014). Sir Thomas Elyot as Lexicographer. OUP Oxford. pp. 398–390. ISBN 978-0-19-150618-5. <a href="978-0-19-150618-5" target="_blank">978-0-19-150618-5</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:5">Thomas Blount (1707). Glossographia Anglicana Nova; Or, A Dictionary Interpreting Such Hard Words of Whatever Language, as are at Present Used in the English Tongue: With Their Etymologies, Definitions, Etc. ... D. Brown. p. 582. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=j14JAAAAQAAJ&pg=PT580" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=j14JAAAAQAAJ&pg=PT580</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:6">Samuel Johnson (1837). Miniature Edition of Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, with a Variety of Useful Tables and Lists. Stirling, Kenney. p. 116. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JTYWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA116" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=JTYWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA116</a> <a href="#fnref:6" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:7">John Craig (1854). A New Universal, Technological, Etymological, and Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language. p. 954. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vTJAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA954" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=vTJAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA954</a> <a href="#fnref:7" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:8">der Streitkolben, Schwingkolben, Schlagkolben – "the mace, swung club, cudgel" <a href="#fnref:8" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:9">Johann Gottfried Flügel; Napoleon N W. Meissner (1856). Vollständiges englisch-deutsches und deutsch-englisches Wörterbuch, bearb. von J. G. Flügel (N. N. W. Meissner). pp. 680, 1614. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=5GBXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1614%7CYEAR%3D1856%7CPAGES%3D976%E2%80%93%7D%7D%3C%2FREF%3E" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=5GBXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1614%7CYEAR%3D1856%7CPAGES%3D976%E2%80%93%7D%7D%3C%2FREF%3E</a> <a href="#fnref:9" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:10">George Redmonds; Turi King; David Hey (25 August 2011). Surnames, DNA, and Family History. Oxford University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-19-162036-2. <a href="978-0-19-162036-2" target="_blank">978-0-19-162036-2</a> <a href="#fnref:10" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
<li id="fn:11">The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: The Century dictionary ... prepared under the superintendence of William Dwight Whitney ... rev. & enl. under the superintendence of Benjamin E. Smith. Century Company. 1911. pp. 2924–. <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ_pAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA2924" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/books?id=JQ_pAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA2924</a> <a href="#fnref:11" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></li>
</ol>

Hurlbat open-in-new

Hurlbat