Now only Hist. [a. F. sponton (also esponton ESPONTOON), = Sp. esponton (Pg. espontão), ad It. spontone, spuntone, f. puntone, punto point.] A species of half-pike or halberd carried by infantry officers in the 18th century (from about 1740).
The It. form spontone is used as a foreign word by Barret, Theor. Warres (1598), IV. iv. 113.
1746. Dk. Cumb’ld, in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 443. I dare say there was neither Soldier nor Officer … who did not kill their one or two Men with their Bayonets & Spontoons.
1746. Lond. Mag., 242. The Spontoon … is a Weapon used of late Years by the Officers of Foot instead of the Half-Pike.
1769. Pennant, Brit. Zool., III. 64. The nose was very long, narrow, and sharp-pointed, not unlike the end of a spontoon.
1786. Gentl. Mag., April, 350/1. The officers who mounted guard … were paraded with their swords drawn instead of spontoons, for the first time since the regulation took place.
1802. James, Milit. Dict., s.v., When the spontoon was planted, the regiment halted; when pointed forwards, the regiment marched; and when pointed backwards, the regiment retreated.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, xxi. I am just now like the half-pike or spontoon of Achilles, one end of which could wound, and the other cure.
1841. Emerson, Ess., Ser. I. xii. (1876), 284. Like the spontoons and standards of the militia, which play such pranks in the eyes and imaginations of school-boys.
transf. 1785. Burns, Jolly Beggars, xiii. From the gilded spontoon to the fife I was ready; I asked no more but a sodger laddie.
