A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword, with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket-shaped guard. It was a common naval weapon.

Etymology

The word cutlass developed from a 17th-century English variation of coutelas, a 16th-century French word for a machete-like blade (the modern French for "knife", in general, is "couteau"; the word was often spelled "cuttoe" in 17th and 18th century English). The French word is itself a corruption of the Italian coltellaccio, or "large knife", a short, broad-bladed sabre popular in Italy during the 16th century The word comes from coltello, "knife", derived ultimately from Latin cultellus meaning "small knife."

In the English-speaking Caribbean, the term "cutlass" is used as a word for machete.

History and use

Origin

The cutlass is a 17th-century descendent of the edged short sword exemplified by the medieval falchion.

Woodsmen and soldiers in the 17th and 18th centuries used a similar short and broad backsword called a hanger, or in German a messer, meaning "knife". Often occurring with the full tang more typical of knives than swords in Europe, which is commonly believed to reflect a legal claim to nonweapon status, these blades may ultimately derive through the falchion (facon, falcon) from the seax.

Cutlass is a short drama film which was filmed in 2007, written and directed by Kate Hudson.

Plot

Lacy (Dakota Fanning), a young songwriter, discovers a great but expensive guitar in a music shop. She's very excited by the guitar, and asks her mother, Robin (Virginia Madsen), to buy it. However, her mom says "absolutely not", but after that she reminiscences about the time back in 1979 when she got an Olds Cutlass as her first car. Her father used to say: "Whatever makes you happy, makes me happy". Maybe... in the end... she'll change her mind about Lacy's wish.

Cast

External links

The cutlass is a type of sword.

Cutlass may also refer to:

In the military:

Other uses:

See also