Shamshir
/ʃæmˈʃɪər/noun
A Persian saber with a strongly curved blade.
Did you know?Shamshir entered English through Persian and Ottoman contact, and its shape helped make it legendary across Islamic and South Asian sword cultures as a blade built for slashing from horseback.
Etymological Timeline
Medieval Persian
Persian
šamšīr
“A curved sword or saber”
Ottoman period
Ottoman Turkish
şemşîr / شمشیر
“A sword, especially a curved saber”
17th-18th Century
English
shamshir
“A Persian curved sword”
Modern English
English
shamshir
“A Persian saber with a strongly curved blade”