A lightweight medieval helmet with a rounded crown and a hinged or movable visor, often worn by soldiers from the 14th century onward.
From Old French 'bacinet,' diminutive of 'bacin' (basin), referring to the helmet's bowl-shaped crown. The term evolved from the simple basin-like shape to describe a specific piece of armor.
Knights upgraded from flat-topped helmets to basinets because the rounded shape was way better at deflecting sword blows—it's basically applied physics from 700 years ago that armor makers figured out through trial and error.
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