Also 7 baggonet, 78 bagonet, 8 bagnet; all still in vulgar use. [a. F. baïonnette, in Cotgr. bayonnette, of uncertain origin. Diez, Littré, Scheler, favor the usual derivation from the name of the city Bayonne, the weapon being supposed to have been either first made or first used there; the former notion is strengthened by a statement of Des Accords (a 1583) that people spoke of bayonnettes de Bayonne Bayonne bayonets, as of Toulouse scissors, etc. But it is possible that the word may be a dim. of OF. bayon, baion arrow or shaft of a cross-bow, from which Cotgr. still has bayonnier an old word = arbalestier: the Sp. bayona sheath, and It. bajonetta little joker (a possible appellation for a dagger), have also been suggested as the source.
(See Notes on the Origin and History of the Bayonet; by Mr. Akerman, read to the Soc. of Antiquaries, May 1860.)]
ǁ 1. A short flat dagger. Obs.
[1611. Cotgr., Bayonnette, a kind of small flat pocket-dagger, furnished with kniues; or a great knife to hang at the girdle, like a dagger.]
1692. Lond. Gaz., No. 2742/2. Skeyns, Baggonets, and all other Arms. Ibid. (1707), No. 4389/1. (Venice), That no persons shall presume to wear the Bayonet, or Sword, on pain of being sent to the Gallies.
2. A stabbing instrument of steel, which may be fixed to the muzzle of a musket or rifle; originally its handle was inserted in the mouth of the gun, but it is now secured by a circular band clasping the barrel. See also SWORD-BAYONET.
[1672. Charles II., Warrant, 2 April, in Carter, Curiosities of War (1860), 239. The souldiers of the several troopes aforesaid are also to have and to carry one bayonet or great knive.]
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4044/3. Our Granadiers, after two or three Vollies put their Bayonets in the Muzzles of their Pieces.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Leith Races, Poems (1845), 32. On guns your bagnets thraw.
1817. J. Scott, Paris Revisit., 130. The soldier was about to plunge his bayonet into the breast of the unfortunate Frenchman.
b. abst. Military force.
1774. Burke, Amer. Tax., Wks. II. 373. You are obeyed solely from respect to the bayonet.
1879. D. J. Hill, Bryant, 112. He visited Paris, then in a state of excitement over the recent revolution and the Italian wars, and under the rule of the bayonet.
3. pl. Soldiers armed with bayonets.
1780. Burke, Let. Merlott, Wks. IX. 259. On the demand of 40,000 Irish bayonets.
c. 1880. Grant, Hist. India, I. li. 261/1. Colonel Pearses column returned reduced from 5000 to 2000 bayonets.
4. transf. or fig. a. generally.
1883. G. Allen, in Knowledge, 8 June, 337/1. In wild barley the entire inflorescence bristles with stiff bayonets.
b. Mech. A pin that plays in and out of a hole, and serves to engage and disengage portions of machinery, a clutch.
1798. in Specif. Patent, No. 2228 (Sellars Spin. Mach.).
1864. in Webster.
5. Spanish Bayonet: A species of Yucca, a liliaceous plant, with a crown of linear-lanceolate leaves, found in the south of North America.
1865. Parkman, Huguenots, vii. (1875), 109. Hacking their way through thickets of the Yucca, or Spanish bayonet.
1882. W. H. Bishop, in Harpers Mag., Dec., 47/1. In the door-yards are the Mexican aloe and the Spanish bayonet, from the adjacent deserts of Mohave and Arizona.
6. attrib., as in bayonet-belt, -charge, -sheath, -thrust, -wound; also bayonet-clutch, a clutch with two prongs for engaging and disengaging machinery; bayonet-joint, one in which the two parts are so interlocked that they cannot be separated by a simple longitudinal movement.
1812. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., IX. 603. There are in the stores at Lisbon Bayonet belts for infantry.
1817. J. Scott, Paris Revisit., 215. Bayonet sheaths, bits of caps, and the rags of clothes, covered the ground.
1870. Eng. Mech., 4 Feb., 501/3. A lens, which is adapted to the apparatus by a bayonet-joint.
1877. Bryant, Countrys Call, i. The rifle and the bayonet-blade For arms like yours were fitter now.