Also 8 glaymore, cly-more. [ad. Gael. claidheamh mòr ‘great sword.’ Being two words in Gaelic, it has two accents: sometimes one, sometimes the other, has the main stress in Eng.]
Hist. The two-edged broadsword of the ancient Scottish Highlanders. Also (inexactly, but very commonly) the basket-hilted broadsword introduced in 16th c., which was frequently single-edged.
(The claymore was not, except in extraordinary instances, two-handed.)
1772. Pennant, Tours Scotl. (1774), 289. See here a Cly-more, or great two-handed sword.
1773. Boswell, Jrnl. Hebrides, 15 Sept. The broad-sword now used … called the glaymore (i. e. the great sword).
1775. Johnson, Western Isl., Wks. X. 457. Their arms were anciently the Glaymore, [etc.].
c. 1787. Burns, Battle Sheriff-Muir, vi. By red claymores, and muskets’ knell.
1802. Campbell, Lochiel’s Warning. When Albin her claymore indignantly draws.
1813. Scott, Triermain, Introd. vii. Its heroes draw no broad claymore.
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 14. His nodding plume and broad claymore.
b. ellipt. A man armed with a claymore.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 552. He might then hope to have four or five thousand claymores at his command.
