Etymology

quillon

quill·on
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Today it means: Synonym of crossguard (“a metal bar fixed between, and at right angles to, the blade and the handle of a sword or other bladed weapon that stops an opponent's similar weapon from sliding along the blade and injuring the hand of the person wielding the sword”). Full definition →

French quillon ← Middle High German kegel ← Old High German kegil
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*kagil“pile, pole, stake; peg, pin”
  2. Old High German · derived fromkegil
  3. Middle High German · derived fromkegel“club”
  4. French · borrowed fromquillon
  5. English todayquillon

Unadapted borrowing from French quillon (literally “little ninepin”), from quille (“club; ninepin, skittle”) (from the similar appearance) + -on (diminutive suffix). Quille is derived from Middle High German kegel (“club”), from Old High German kegil, from Proto-West Germanic *kagil (“pile, pole, stake; peg, pin”), from *kagō (“bush, shrub”) + *-il (diminutive suffix).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.