The part of a suit of armor that covers the upper arm, consisting of a rigid metal casing that protects the shoulder and bicep area.
From French 'brun' meaning brown or burnished, combined with the armor suffix '-ion'. It evolved from 15th-century French armor terminology to describe specific protective pieces for medieval knights.
Medieval armorers named pieces not just by location but by how they looked—brunions were often burnished to a brown-gold sheen, so the name literally means 'the browned piece,' showing how craftsmen's techniques influenced the language itself.
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