English Explanatory Dictionary

Excalibur

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. The legendary sword of King Arthur, having magical properties.

Pronunciation

/ɛksˈkæ.lɪ.bɚ/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Excalibur.wav

Word forms

Excalibur Excaliburs

Etymology

From Middle English Excalaber, from Old French Escalibor, Escaliborc, prothetic form of Calliborc, alteration of Calibourne, from Medieval Latin Caliburnus (Geoffrey of Monmouth, ca. 1136), influenced by calibs (“steel”) (for chalybs), alteration of Old Welsh Caledbulch (compare modern Caledfwlch), compound of caled (“hard”) and bwlch (“cleft, crack”). Related to the Irish legendary sword Caladbolg, literally ‘hard-belly’, i.e. ‘voracious’.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on E Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary