cold weapon

A man with a Japanese longsword called a katana (top), and a Karo tribe member from Ethiopia hunting guinea fowl with a bow and arrow (bottom). These are types of cold weapons.

From cold +‎ weapon, possibly a calque of Russian холо́дное ору́жие (xolódnoje orúžije, “cold weapon”), from холо́дное (xolódnoje) (the nominative neuter form of холо́дный (xolódnyj, “cold”)) + ору́жие (orúžije, “arm, weapon; weaponry”): see the 1876 quotation.^[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kəʊld ˈwɛp(ə)n/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /koʊld ˈwɛpən/
• Rhymes: -ɛpən
• Hyphenation: cold weap‧on

cold weapon (plural cold weapons)

1. (weaponry) A weapon that does not use explosives or fire.

   Synonym: white arm

   Antonym: firearm

   Hyponym: edged weapon

   • 1863 January 17, “How to Make Soldiers”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All the Year Round. A Weekly Journal. [...] With which is Incorporated Household Words, volume VIII, number 195, London: […] C. Whiting, […], →OCLC, page 446, column 1:

     A fencing-room in which twenty or thirty couples of men are practising, is a fair illustration of a mélée with cold weapons.

   • 1876, Hugo Stumm, “The Field of Operations and the Russian Resources of Operations in General”, in F. Henvey, P. Mosa, transl., The Russian Campaign against Khiva in 1873. […], part I, Calcutta, West Bengal: Foreign Department Press, →OCLC, section II (The Russian Bases of Operations in Central Asia), page 157:

     The most effective weapons in the hands of the Caucasians was the sword, or as the Russians call it "the cold weapon" ["khalodnoye orúdiye," as opposed to firearms "agniovoye orúdiye"], the use of which, in hand-to-hand fight, was their special forte.

   • 1890, Theodore Ayrault Dodge, “Army Organization and Tactics. Early Seventeenth to Early Eighteenth Century.”, in Gustavus Adolphus: A History of the Art of War from Its Revival after the Middle Ages to the End of the Spanish Succession War, […] (Great Captains), volume II, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC, page 571:

     Pistols, carbines and musketoons were the firearms of the cavalry; a sword or sabre the cold weapon.

   • 2009, Zhang Yun, “The History and Features of Dao”, in The Complete Taiji Dao: The Art of the Chinese Saber, Berkeley, Calif.: Blue Snake Books, North Atlantic Books, →ISBN, page 27:

     There are perhaps more variations of the dao than there are of any other cold weapon.

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