truncheon means A short staff, a club; a cudgel. It carries an Arena rating of 1626, earned across 68 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, truncheon ranks #1,292 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #1,353 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #1,745 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #2,155 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
truncheon is pronounced /ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/.
Why “truncheon” is a great word
TRUNCHEON — [Noun] A short, thick club or staff, especially one carried as a symbol of authority by a police officer. From Middle English tronchoun, from Old French tronchon (“thick stick, stump”), from Late Latin *troncionem, from Latin truncus (“trunk, stem”). The sense of a police officer's club is attested from around 1816. Unlike a “baton,” which conducts orchestras or relay races, or a “cudgel,” a crude weapon of pure blunt force, the truncheon is institutional weight made wood. It is the dark cylinder on a constable’s belt, the definitive crack against a riot shield, the polished lignum vitae resting on a magistrate’s desk—a splinter of the state’s monopoly on order, worn smooth by the grip of law.
Etymology
From Middle English tronchoun, from Old French tronchon (“thick stick”), from Late Latin *troncionem, from Latin truncus.
noun
- A short staff, a club; a cudgel.e.g.“with his troncheon he so rudely stroke / Cymochles twise” — 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 39:
- A baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer.e.g.“Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword / The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe / Become them with one half so good a grace / As mercy does.” — c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount,
- A fragment or piece broken off from something, especially a broken-off piece of a spear or lance.e.g.“Therewith asunder in the midst it brast, / And in his hand nought but the troncheon left[…].” — 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- The shaft of a spear.
- A stout stem, as of a tree, with the branches lopped off, to produce rapid growth.e.g.“Truncheons of seven or eight feet long, thrust two feet into the earth […] when once rooted, may be cut at six inches above ground” — 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Socie
- A penis.e.g.“Then, being on his knees between my legs, he drew up his shirt and bared all his hairy thighs, and stiff staring truncheon, red-topt and rooted into a thicket of curls” — 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
verb
- To strike with a truncheon.e.g.“If captains were of my wind they would truncheon you out” — c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isa
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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