Bracer; Gauntlet; Sleeve; Cuff; Bracelet

[PeterBinkley]

This is a discussion of bracers, which are often referred to as gauntlets.

[PeterBinkley]

Disambiguation
Technically, a gauntlet is a glove. One wears gauntlets like one wears mittens, but with fingers.
A bracer is a garment worn on the forearm.
Many e-Nable designs called gauntlets, are actually bracers.
So an e-Nable "gauntlet" is worn as a bracer, bracelet, sleeve or cuff.
I would personally prefer that we decide on a term that Google Translate handles well (like bracelet) and stick with it moving forward.
Is there a concise Latin term we could consider?

[AdamArabian]

I am in favor of this clarification in terminology. Perhaps we could use one of the exploded view drawings of the raptor to label parts so we are all able to talk common terms?

[Peregrine Hawthorn]

Also in favor of bracer or bracelet. Gauntlet is confusing and won't translate correctly.

[hertfordkc]

Works for me.

[laird]

Since the "gauntlet" is only the outer half of the arm, and it's the length of the arm, perhaps "bracer" is better than "sleeve" (which goes all the way around) or cuff (which is just the end of the sleeve)?

Or am I being too literal? :-)

[AdamArabian]

I don't think its too literal - there are things with these names already (from armory) so if we try to change them it is inherently incorrect.

HOWEVER - bracer is not in the normal parlance so I have no qualms going with what is most accepted.

[LydiaOST]

Yeah, I would go with bracer. Its current usage in English is the most accurate for what we're talking about. A gauntlet is an entire glove that covers up to mid-forearm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauntlet_%28glove%29
The word "Bracelet" is heavily associated with jewelry in English, and "sleeve" with shirts.

We do have exploded view pics of at least one design, so it might be nice to agree on terms and label one of those with said terms as suggested.


And just for fun:
A thread about the historicity of bracers at all
http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.16206.html
We could get quite distracted with off-topic chatter I imagine... No thread-hijacking going on here, though.

[ksweens]

Throwing my hat in for bracer as well.

Unofficial research: 5th grade brother and friends think that "bracer" is a fun word to say (and now they've been driving me nuts for the past half hour while I play around with a Raptor model in AutoCAD). Looks like it has support from one of the target age groups

[jameshs]

how about "forearm bracer" for the hands and "upper arm bracer" for the arms - if we are naming then we should think holistically!

James

[laird]

Reading http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Components_of_medieval_armour was highly entertaining, full of wonderful obscure terms. For example:

• Rerebrace or Brassart or Upper Cannon (of Vambrace): Plate that covers the section of upper arm from elbow to area covered by shoulder armour.
• Vambrace or Lower Cannon (of Vambrace): Forearm guard. May be solid metal or splints of metal attached to a leather backing. Developed in antiquity but named in the 14th century. Vambrace may also sometimes refer to parts of armour that together cover the lower and upper arms.
• Gauntlet: Gloves that cover from the fingers to the forearms, made from many materials. (So the whole hand assembly?)
• Couter or cowter: Plate that guards the elbow, eventually became articulated, may be covered by guard of vambrace (see below).
• Spaulder: Bands of plate that cover the shoulder and part of upper arm but not the armpit. Cover the shoulder (with a dome shaped piece called a shoulder cop), armpit and sometimes the back and chest.

And there's a whole set of Japanese names for the parts, too!

Now I'm imagining assembly instructions that say things like "assemble the Lower Cannon of Vambrace to the Couter using M3-10 bolts."

[Peregrine Hawthorn]

Yeah, we should probably strike a balance between the proper terms, and what's actually understood by the general population.

Forearm/upper arm bracer does this pretty well. It states pretty well what it is, and where it belongs in the arm or hand without sounding like gibberish.