or HALBARD, in war, a well-known weapon, formerly carried by the sergeants of foot and dragoons. It was a sort of spear, the shaft of which was about five feet long, and made of ash or other wood. Its head was armed with a steel point, not unlike the point of a two-edged sword. Besides this sharp point, which was in a line with the shaft, there was a cross piece of steel, flat, and pointed at both ends, but generally with a cutting edge at one extremity, and a bent sharp point at the other; so that it served equally to cut down or to push withal. It was also useful in determining the ground between the ranks, and adjusting the files of a battalion. The word is formed from the German hal, hall, and bard, an hatchet. Vossius derives it from the German halloberd, a compound of hel, clarus, splendens, and berd, axe. The halbert was anciently a common weapon in the army, where there were companies of halberdiers. It is said to have been used by the Amazons, and afterwards by the Rhetians and Vindelicians about the year 570. It was called the Danish axe, because the Danes carried a halbert on the left shoulder. From the Danes it passed to the Scotch, from the Scotch to the English Saxons, and from them to the French.