pommel

Etymology

From Middle English pomel, from Old French pomel and Medieval Latin pomellum, pumellum, presumedly via Vulgar Latin *pomellum (“ball, knob”), the diminutive of Late Latin pōmum (“apple”). Compare French pommeau and Spanish pomo.

noun

1. The upper front brow of a saddle.
   But, if it does so sit, it is plain that the pommel must rise sufficiently to secure the withers from pressure; therefore it follows, that a horse whose withers are higher than common, (a well-built hunter for example,) requires a pommel higher by so much as he excels the generality of horses. 1830, Charles Thompson, Rules for Bad Horsemen, 2nd edition
   In the shoulder saddle, pommel and cantle are inclined toward each other at the bottom and away from each other at the top. 1990, Richard W. Bulliet, The Camel and the Wheel
   An owner fits four fingers underneath the saddle's pommel, testing the fit of the saddle. 2011, Moira C. Reeve, The Original Horse Bible
2. A rounded knob or handle">handle.
   1. Either of the rounded handles on a pommel horse.
      The pommels, of which two sets must be provided, fit into these incisions. 1867, Ernest George Ravenstein, The gymnasium and its fittings
      Men use the pommels on the horse for side horse competition, and remove them for long horse vaulting. Women originally used the side horse with the pommels, but later the pommels were removed. 1970, Dennis Keith Stanley, Gymnastics for women
      Jahn is credited with introducing the parallel bars, the horizontal bar, the side horse with pommels, and the vaulting buck. 2003, Dale Mood, Sports and Recreational Activities
   2. The knob">knob on the hilt of an edged weapon such as a sword or dagger.
      Holonyms: haft, hilt
      The pommel is either a cone of metal or a crutch with a whorl ending either arm. 1884, Sir Richard Francis Burton, The Book of the Sword
      Pommel bilobed, overlaid with four acanthus leaves, and provided with small button-shaped eminences at tips of lobes and at apex. 1929, Bashford Dean, Catalogue of European Daggers
      There is a possibility that pommel was only decorated on the occasion of his coronation in 1209 but I take as more probably that complete pommel was made at that time and added to the tang of a blade, which is undoubtedly earlier. 2007, Marko Aleksic, Medieval Swords from Southeastern Europe
   3. A knob forming the finial of a turret or pavilion.
      One fragment of pillar had a pommel finial with a mortise, indicating that it once held a metal object, perhaps a cross. 2005, Susan T. Stevens, Bir Ftouha: a pilgrimage church complex at Carthage
      Yet each community had a turning (pommel or finial) at the top of the post whose shape distinguished it from the work of other communities. At New Lebanon, the decorative pommel varied little over the years. 2010, M. Stephen Miller, Inspired Innovations: A Celebration of Shaker Ingenuity
      Five or six years after Mèlusine had departed, there began to appear, on the last day of August, a great hand that removed the pommel from the Poitevin Tower and pulled at it so strongly that it broke a great part of the roof. 2013, Gareth Knight, The Book of Melusine of Lusignan in History, Legend and Romance
3. (sports, obsolete) The bat used in the game of knurr and spell or trap ball.
   The player, armed with a pommel, stands from two to three feet from the spell, places a knur in the cup which is held down by the rack. 1871, Edmund Routledge, Routledge's Every Boy's Annual
   The commonest method of playing the game, by the smaller boys of the village, was with a "sendstick," or pommel, and a wooden spell with a hole in one end to place the knur, which, when struck "tip-cat" like at the other end, threw the knur up to be struck at. 1886, William Smith, Morley: Ancient and Modern
   Next, the spring of the spell, at the end of which is a small brass cup to hold the knur, is adjusted by thumbscrews, so that when released by a touch of the pommel on the trigger, it will toss the knur a distance of six feet forward. 1911, The Encyclopaedia of sport & games, volume 3

verb

1. (transitive) To pound or beat.
   The scaling him with chairs for ladders to dive into his pockets, despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his cravat, hug him round his neck, pommel his back, and kick his legs in irrepressible affection! 1843, Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
   I will not say as schoolboys do to bullies—Take some one of your own size; don’t pommel me! No, ye’ve knocked me down, and I am up again; but ye have run and hidden. 1851, Herman Melville, “37”, in Moby Dick
   I began to fight him, pommeling him with my fists, screaming at him, all the while he was yelling, “Dani, it's me, Dani, it's your brother. It's Yoram.” 2012, Dan Alon, Munich Memoir