jambeau

Etymology

From Middle English iambeau(s) (compare jamber), from an Anglo-Norman [Term?] derivative of Old French jambe (“leg”): compare Old French jambiere. See jamb (noun). Compare lamboy(s).

noun

1. (historical, chiefly in the plural) A piece of armour for the leg (especially below the knee), a greave.
   The mortall steele despiteously entayld / Deepe in their flesh, quite through the yron walles, / That a large purple streme adown their giambeux falles. 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.vi
   [He suspected] a chink in his hinder jambeau, for there was a trickling at the back of his leg, although he felt no pain. 1984, Julian May, The Nonborn King ; The Adversary, page 200
   Jambeaus and sollerets hung loose from his shaky ankles. Cuisses and brassards were bashed as by countless bludgeons. Under a shirt of chain mail, the man's chest was caved in and panting. 2001, J. Robert King, Mad Merlin, Macmillan, page 39
   After all, a knight is not a knight without his jambeaus and sollerets, […] 2010, Harold Bloom, Ray Bradbury, Infobase Publishing, page 27
   A cuish, knee piece, and jambeau protected their legs. All the armor was hammered out to favor scales […] 2011, Thomas Everill, Chamber of the Dragon's Soul: Awakenings, AuthorHouse, page 80
2. A certain fish.
   Spotted spikefishes and jambeaus are diamond shaped, about as long as they are high, with the greatest depth occurring at the tips of the stout first dorsal and anal spines, near the midbody. The small caudal fin is broadly rounded. 2016, David B. Snyder, George H. Burgess, Marine Fishes of Florida, Johns Hopkins University Press+ORM