The term claymore ( /ˈkleɪmɔər/; from Scottish Gaelic claidheamh mòr, "great sword") refers to the Scottish variant of the late medieval two-handed longsword. It is characterized as having a cross hilt of forward sloping quillons with quatrefoil terminations. It was in use from the 15th to 17th centuries.
The term claymore is an anglicisation of the Gaelic claidheamh mòr "great sword", first attested in 1772 (as Cly-more) with the gloss "great two-handed sword". The sense "basket-hilted broadsword" is contemporaneous, attested in 1773 as "The broad-sword now used [...] called the Claymore, (i.e. the great sword)."OED observes that the latter usage is "inexact, but very common". The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica likewise judged that the term is "wrongly" applied to the basket-hilted sword.
Authors arguing that the basket-hilted sword is "incorrectly" called claymore have been known to suggest that claybeg (from a purported Gaelic claidheamh beag "small sword") should be used instead.
It should be noted that this doesn't parallel Scottish Gaelic usage. According to the Gaelic Dictionary by R. A. Armstrong (1825), claidheamh mòr translates to "broadsword", and claidheamh dà làimh to "two-handed sword", while claidheamh beag is given as a translation of "Bilbo".
A challenge is a general term referring to things that are imbued with a sense of difficulty and victory.
Challenge may also refer to: