RAPIER  , the name given to two distinct types of

sword . Originally the " rapier " (Fr. rapiere) was a long two-edged and pointed weapon with a wide cup hilt, used together with the dagger in fencing and duelling chiefly as a thrusting weapon, the cut taking a secondary position . This was the typical duelling sword of the 16th and 17th centuries . In the 18th century the " small-sword " took its place; this was a pointed weapon only, the " cut " having entirely dropped out, and the dagger being discarded . The word rapier is of doubtful origin . Du Cange (Glossarium, s. v . " Rapparia ") quotes an example of the word used as an adjective to qualify espee as early as 1474, and gives as a conjectural derivation Gr. pairlEely=Lat. caedere, to cut . Skeat (Etym . Did., 1910) follows the suggestion of Diez that rapiere is from raspiere, a rasper or poker, and was a name given in contempt by the old cut-and-thrust fencers to the new weapon . Spanish has raspadera, a raker, and there are several 16th and 17th century quotations alluding to the con-tempt with which the rapier was greeted, and to its Spanish origin (see FENCING and SWORD) .