Dictionary

almain rivet en · NOUN

Etymology

From Almain + rivet, attested 1530 (as almayne ryvettes). Perhaps named for the overlapping plates' sliding on rivets, although it has also been suggested that rivet meant a suit of armor, related to French revêtir.

Meanings

1. A kind of light, flexible plate armour first used in Germany around 1450, designed to be manufactured easily, especially en masse.
   • The pikemen wore a corslet or almain rivet with a burgonet, the halberdiers and bill-men the almain rivet, or a corslet with mail-sleeves, the “shot” brigandines, coats of plate, or jacks with tippets (and sometimes sleeves), ... 2013, Francis M. Kelly, Randolph Schwabe, A Short History of Costume & Armour: Two Volumes Bound as One, Courier Corporation, →ISBN:
   • New in Henry's first French war were almain rivets, mass-produced South German plate body armours (see Fig. 3.3). The king himself ordered 2,000 of them in 1512 and his subjects soon began to catch up. 2018, Steven Gunn, The English People at War in the Age of Henry VIII, Oxford University Press, →ISBN:
   • This archer of the Earl of Northumberland's contingent (centre) is shown without his 'Almain rivet', displaying instead the coat supplied to men of this contingent. His hat and quiver are both of the Percy family livery colours. 2012, Martin Windrow, Osprey Men-At-Arms: A Celebration, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 108:
   • Two tithing corslets furnished, ij pair of almain rivets furnished. […] John Glasse, one almain rivet. John Chapman, one almain rivet. John Hurforde, with others[,] one almain rivet. 1904, Somerset Record Society, Publications, page 178, quoting an earlier tithe

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