Sabers

Sabre
French sabre of the sailors of the Guard, First Empire.
Type	Sword
Service history
Wars	Early Modern warfare, Ottoman Wars, Napoleonic Wars, American Revolution, American Civil War, Franco-Prussian War, World War I, Polish-Soviet War
Production history
Produced	Early modern period

The sabre (British English) or saber (American English; see spelling differences) is a type of backsword with a curved blade associated with the light cavalry of the Early Modern and Napoleonic periods. Originally associated Central-Eastern European cavalry such as the Hussars, the sabre became widespread in Western Europe in the Thirty Years' War, notably via the Croat light cavalry. Lighter sabres also became popular with infantry of the late 17th century. In the 19th century, models with less curving blades became common and were also used by heavy cavalry. The last sabre issued to US cavalry was the Patton saber of 1913. Szabla wz. 34 was the last sabre issued to the Polish cavalry, in 1934.

The military sabre was used as a duelling weapon in academic fencing in the 19th century, giving rise to a discipline of modern sabre fencing (introduced in the 1896 Summer Olympics) loosely based on the characteristics of the historical weapon in that it allows for cuts as well as thrusts.

English sabre is recorded from the 1670s, as a direct loan from French, where the sabre is an alteration of sable, which was in turn loaned from German Säbel, Sabel in the 1630s. The German word is on record from the 15th century, loaned from Polish szabla, which was itself adopted from Hungarian szabla (14th century, later szablya). The spread of the Hungarian word to neighboring European languages took place in the context of the Ottoman wars in Europe of the 15th to 17th centuries. The spelling saber becomes common in American English in the second half of the 19th century.