hoguine

Meanings

1. An item of armor worn in the 16th century, consisting of overlapping lames to protect the buttocks.

Etymology

From French hoguine (or a Middle or Old French predecessor), which by the mid-1600s denoted a culet. In earlier French texts the term denoted armor for the arms, thighs and/or lower legs; compare the Scots borrowing hogingis (1541), which the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue defines as "pieces of armour covering the arms, thighs and legs". Of uncertain origin; compare Old French hoguette (“small barrel”), hoguinele, and French hoguiner (“annoy, torment, molest; thwart”); the FEW connects hoguine, hoguiner and houguette to Old Norse haugr (“hill”), but this is unconvincing from a semantic point of view.