vauntmure means A false wall raised in front of the main wall as a fortification. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 89 out of 100.
Why “vauntmure” is a great word
An outer defensive wall constructed before a main wall, serving as a preliminary fortification to absorb and disrupt an attack. From the French avant-mur, from avant ("before, in front") and mur ("wall"). First attested in English in 1562 in a translation by J. Shute. Unlike a parapet (which is a protective breastwork atop a structure) or a curtain wall (which is the principal, connecting enclosure of a fortress), a vauntmure is a sacrificial, freestanding skin of stone erected in the killing ground. It is the first rampart to taste the siege-engine's blow, the shattered berm that slows the advancing tide, the outermost layer to be stained with pitch and cannon-smoke—a testament to the grim arithmetic of defense, where the wasting of one wall preserves the life of another.
Etymology
From French avant-mur. See vanguard and mure.
noun
- A false wall raised in front of the main wall as a fortification.“another Engine , named the Warwolf , pierced with one stone , and cut as even as a thread two vauntmures, as he did before at the siege of Brehin”