What does foin mean?
Foin is an obsolete English word that meant to thrust with a pointed weapon, such as a sword, rapier, or spear, and, as a noun, referred to such a thrust itself. It appears most often in texts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when rapier play was a fashionable and dangerous skill, and it shows up both in fencing manuals and in descriptions of hunting, where hunters might 'foin' at a boar with a spear. Shakespeare uses the term, helping preserve it in the literary record even as the practice it named faded from daily life. Today 'foin' survives only as a curiosity for historians, readers of early modern drama, and lovers of obscure words; anyone encountering it should understand it not as a live piece of English vocabulary but as a window into the language of an age when swordplay was common enough to need its own precise terminology.
A thrust or stab made with a pointed weapon such as a sword, rapier, or spear.
"His sudden foin caught the swordsman off guard."
Found only in archaic texts on fencing and combat.
To thrust with a pointed weapon; to make a stabbing motion in combat or the hunt.
"The huntsman foined at the charging boar."
Obsolete in modern usage; encountered chiefly in Renaissance literature.
The plural applies to the noun sense; like the singular, it appears only in archaic texts.
"The fencer answered each of his opponent's foins in turn."
Shakespeare's era of rapier combat had its own vocabulary for the lunge — 'foin' — and it has been quietly rusting away ever since.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of foin
The origin of 'foin' is somewhat uncertain, but it is generally taken to have entered English in the medieval or early modern period, likely through contact with French during the long cross-Channel exchange of chivalric and fencing culture. Its earliest recorded uses are bound up with martial vocabulary — descriptions of thrusting in combat and in the hunt — which suggests it belonged to the specialized language of arms rather than everyday speech. The word fell out of use by roughly the seventeenth century, surviving thereafter almost exclusively in literature and dictionaries.
How foin is actually used
'Foin' is archaic and essentially obsolete in modern English; readers will encounter it chiefly in Renaissance texts, including Shakespeare's plays, and in historical accounts of fencing and boar-hunting. It should not be used in contemporary writing except deliberately for period effect.
Easily confused with foin
'Foin' is an archaic term for a weapon thrust, while 'foist' is a verb meaning to pass off something worthless or impose something surreptitiously.