yataghan

plural yataghans · alternative ataghan · alternative yatagan · alternative yatigan

1. A type of sword used in Muslim countries from the mid-16th to late 19th centuries.

   A Montenegrin perceived it and ran immediately to him and drew his yataghan, saying, “You are very brave, and must wish that I should cut off your head rather than that you should fall into the hands of the enemy.”

   1942, Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, Canongate, published 2006, page 1041

   1 more example

   The angry-faced official communicated the intelligence to a large group of Anadolian, Caramanian, Bosniac, and Roumelian Turks,— sturdy, undersized, broad-shouldered, bare-legged, splay-footed, horny-fisted, dark-browed, honest-looking mountaineers, who were lounging about with long pistols and yataghans stuck in their broad sashes [...].

   1855, Sir Richard Burton, Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah, Dover, published 1964, page 22

   Synonyms: Turkish sword