truncheon

English

A truncheon/nightstick/baton

Etymology

From Middle English tronchoun, from Old French tronchon (“thick stick”), from Late Latin *troncionem, from Latin truncus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/, /ˈtɹʌnʃən/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹʌnt͡ʃən/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌnt͡ʃən

Noun

truncheon (plural truncheons)

1. A short staff, a club; a cudgel.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 39:

     with his troncheon he so rudely stroke / Cymochles twise

   • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 52:

     One is a large ball of iron, fastened with three chains to a strong truncheon or staff of about two feet long; the other is of mixed metal, in the form of a channelled melon, fastened also to a staff by a triple chain; these balls weigh eight pounds.

2. A baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer.

   Synonyms: (US) nightstick, baton

   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], line 60:

     Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword / The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe / Become them with one half so good a grace / As mercy does.

   • 1874–1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC:

     The imputed virtue of folios full of knockdown arguments is supposed to reside in them, just as some of the majesty of the British Empire dwells in the constable’s truncheon.

3. (obsolete) A fragment or piece broken off from something, especially a broken-off piece of a spear or lance.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     Therewith asunder in the midst it brast, / And in his hand nought but the troncheon left […].

4. (obsolete) The shaft of a spear.
5. (obsolete) A stout stem, as of a tree, with the branches lopped off, to produce rapid growth.
   • 1664, J[ohn] E[velyn], Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-trees and the Propagation of Timber in His Majesties Dominions. […], London: […] Jo[hn] Martyn, and Ja[mes] Allestry, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     Truncheons of seven or eight feet long, thrust two feet into the earth […] when once rooted, may be cut at six inches above ground

6. (euphemistic) A penis.
   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

     Then, being on his knees between my legs, he drew up his shirt and bared all his hairy thighs, and stiff staring truncheon, red-topt and rooted into a thicket of curls

Derived terms

• love truncheon
• luncheon truncheon

Translations

short club

• Danish: batong c, knippel c
• Dutch: knuppel (nl) m
• Finnish: kapula (fi), patukka (fi), sauva (fi), keppi (fi)
• French: matraque (fr) f
• Galician: porra (gl) f
• German: Gummiknüppel (de) m, Schlagstock m
• Greek: γκλοπ n (gklop)
• Hungarian: gumibot (hu)
• Irish: smachtín m
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: batong m

  Nynorsk: batong m

• Polish: buława (pl) f
• Portuguese: cassetete (pt) m
• Russian: дубинка (ru) (dubinka)
• Spanish: porra (es) f
• Swedish: batong (sv) c, polisbatong c, påk (sv) c, knölpåk (sv) c, käpp (sv) c
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: صوپه (sopa), چوماق (çomak), كوتك (kötek)

• Ukrainian: кийок m (kyjok), дубинка f (dubynka)

a baton, or military staff of command, now especially the stick carried by a police officer

• Bulgarian: полицейска палка f (policejska palka)
• Czech: pendrek (cs) m, obušek m
• Dutch: wapenstok (nl) m
• Finnish: pamppu (fi)
• German: Schlagstock m
• Macedonian: пендрек m (pendrek)
• Polish: gumowa pałka policyjna f
• Russian: резиновая дубинка (rezinovaja dubinka)
• Spanish: porra (es) f
• Swedish: kommandostav c
• Turkish: cop (tr)
• Ukrainian: гумова палиця f (humova palycja), гумовий кийок m (humovyj kyjok)

See also

• bludgeon

Verb

truncheon (third-person singular simple present truncheons, present participle truncheoning, simple past and past participle truncheoned)

1. (transitive) To strike with a truncheon.
   • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

     If captains were of my wind they would truncheon you out

Translations

strike with a truncheon

• Polish: uderzać pałką impf, uderzyć pałką pf
• Swedish: prygla (sv)