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A longsword (also spelled as long sword or long-sword) is a type of European sword characterized as having a cruciform hilt with a grip for two-handed use (around ) and a straight double-edged blade of around , The "longsword" type exists in a morphological continuum with the medieval knightly sword and the Renaissance-era Zweihänder. It was prevalent during the late medieval and Renaissance periods (approximately 1350 to 1550), with early and late use reaching into the 13th and 17th centuries. ==Terminology== The term "longsword" is not unambiguous, and refers to the "bastard sword" only where the late medieval to Renaissance context is implied. "Longsword" in other contexts has been used to refer to Bronze Age swords, Migration period and Viking swords as well as the early modern dueling sword. Historical (15th to 16th century) terms for this type of sword included Spanish ', ', or ', Italian ' or ', Portuguese ' and Middle French ''フランス語:passot''. The Gaelic ' means "great sword"; anglicised as ''claymore,'' it came to refer to the Scottish type of longsword with v-shaped crossguard. Historical terminology overlaps with that applied to the Zweihänder sword in the 16th century: French ''フランス語:espadon'', Spanish ', or Portuguese ' may also be used more narrowly to refer to these large swords. The French ''フランス語:épée de passot'' may also refer to a medieval single-handed sword optimized for thrusting. The French ''フランス語:épée bâtarde'' and the English ''bastard sword'' originate in the 15th or 16th century, originally in the general sense of "irregular sword, sword of uncertain origin", but by the mid-16th century could refer to exceptionally large swords. The ''Masters of Defence'' competition organised by Henry VIII in July 1540 listed ''two hande sworde'' and ''bastard sworde'' as two separate items. It is uncertain whether the same term could still be used to other types of smaller swords, but antiquarian usage in the 19th century established the use of "bastard sword" as referring unambiguously to these large swords. The German ''ドイツ語:langes schwert'' ("long sword") in 17th-century manuals does not denote a type of weapon, but the technique of fencing with both hands at the hilt, contrasting with ''ドイツ語:kurzes schwert'' ("short sword") used of fencing with the same weapon, but with one hand gripping the blade (also known as a half-sword). It is only in the later 16th century that the term ''ドイツ語:langes schwert'' can be shown to be applied to a type of sword. Contemporary use of "long-sword" or "longsword" only resurfaced in the 2000s in the context of reconstruction of the German school of fencing, translating the German ''ドイツ語:langes schwert''.〔 A nonce attestation of "long-sword" in the sense of "heavy two-handed sword" is found in 〕〔 uses "long sword (''Schwerdt'') on (p. 220 ) as direct translation from a German text of 1516, and "long sword or long rapier" in reference to George Silver (1599) on (p. 269 ).〕〔Systematic use of the term only from 2001 beginning with 〕 The term "hand-and-a-half sword" is relatively modern (from the late 19th century).〔As attested in 〕 This name was given because the balance of the sword made it usable in one hand, as well as two. During the first half of the 20th century, the term "bastard sword" was used regularly to refer to this type of sword, while "long sword" (or "long-sword"), if used at all, referred to the rapier (in the context of Renaissance or Early Modern fencing).〔See, for example, 〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「longsword」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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