What does fauld mean?
The fauld is a component of European plate armour: the hooped or laminated defence that shields the lower torso, waist, and hips. Made of several horizontal metal strips called lames, which were riveted together over leather bands so they could flex, the fauld formed the movable lower half of a cuirass, working in partnership with the breastplate above and, frequently, with tassets hung from its lower edge to guard the thighs. The name appears almost exclusively in specialist contexts — museum catalogues, arms-and-armour scholarship, reenactment communities, and historical fiction set in the age of knights. Because full suits of plate fell out of military use by the seventeenth century, 'fauld' never entered everyday language, making it a rare example of a word preserved chiefly by historians and collectors. Encountering it signals a reader's passage into the technical vocabulary of the armourer's craft.
nounA fauld is the laminated or segmented plate defence covering the lower torso and hips in a full suit of armour, forming the lower part of the cuirass.
- The segmented plate defence of the lower torso and hips in European plate armour, attached below the breastplate and often paired with tassets to protect the upper thighs.
"The knight's fauld flared outward over his hips, its overlapping lames allowing him to ride comfortably in the saddle."
"The Greenwich armour's fauld is composed of seven lames, riveted so they slide freely when the wearer bends."
"Museum conservators removed the fauld and tassets to treat corrosion beneath the overlapping plates."
The plural typically refers to the individual lames of one harness or to faulds across multiple suits.
"The collection includes several faulds detached from their original breastplates."
The word 'fauld' survives almost solely because armour historians kept it alive — you will meet it in no other walk of life than a museum's suit of plate.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of fauld
The term belongs to the vocabulary of sixteenth-century European armourers, when full plate harnesses reached their most refined form; its precise linguistic origins are debated among scholars, and it should be treated as a technical armoury word rather than one with a well-documented genealogy in classical languages. No secure cognates in modern English derive from it.
How fauld is actually used
'Fauld' is a specialist term encountered almost exclusively in arms-and-armour scholarship, museum catalogues, historical fiction, and reenactment circles; it is not part of general vocabulary. It is always used of armour, never figuratively.
Easily confused with fauld
'Fold' is an everyday word for bending something or an enclosure for sheep, whereas 'fauld' is a specific component of medieval plate armour.