A sword with a blunt or flat back edge and only one sharp cutting edge; a practice or dueling sword used historically.
Compound of 'back' + 'sword' (from Old Norse 'sverd'). Emerged as a safer training weapon for swordplay in the 16th-17th centuries.
Backswords were the training wheels of sword fighting—they let beginners practice technique without accidentally decapitating their sparring partner, making combat training much more... survivable!
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