Fencing Glossary
Oh, that's what that means...
(Legitimate version is here)
- Abstain
- French for "so sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
- Advance
- Forward motion made by male fencers toward female fencers, usually resulting in a three-yard penalty, a red card, and a slap across the face.
- Alléz
- Place to go for a cigarette in the middle of a tournament
- Attack in Preparation
- When you sneak up and hit your opponent while they're still putting on their uniform.
- Ballestra
- Male ballerina.
- Barrage
- Shelling your opponent with cannon fire from several miles away.
- Beat attack
- Counting 'a-one, a-two, a-1,2,3,4' before hitting your opponent
- Change of Engagement
- Selecting a new fiancee.
- Corps-a-corpse
- Sin of the Fleche. French for "full contact fencing."
- Coupe
- Little foreign car fencers often drive.
- Croise
- A French pastry.
- Derobement
- The Houdini-like motions required by fencers to escape their straightjacket-like fencing uniforms.
- Disengage
- Getting rid of your fiancee, usually by fencing too much.
- En Garde
- French for "On Guard," a paranoid state in which the fencer believes everyone is out to get him.
- Engagement
- What your fiancée breaks when they realize all you care about is fencing
- Envelopment
- What fencing does to people who just want to "try it once"
- Feeble
- What old fencers eventually become.
- Feint
- What a fencer does after they get their credit card bill from a tournament weekend
- Fencing Time
- Usually lost in equipment down time, tournament waiting time, etc.
- FIE
- A curse given in Old English.
- Fleche
- Is all bruised after a few bouts.
- Foible
- The mistake you make that lets your opponent get a hit.
- Foil
- What you are trying to do to your opponent
- Forte
- The cost of a new blade
- French Grip
- The fencers secret handshake
- Guard
- What you have to do at tournaments so your teammates don't "borrow" all your food.
- Lamé
- Fencers term for a non-fencer
- Off-piste
- How you feel when your expensive equipment starts failing
- One-Two
- Basic fencing dance step. Followed by "Cha-Cha-Cha."
- Overlay
- What the fourth person in the back of the Fiesta has to do
- Passé
- All those other sports you tried before fencing
- Phrase
- When fencers manage to string words together rather than grunting monosyllabically
- Piste
- How to end a tournament. Or start it, in some cases
- Pistol Grip
- What you want to grab when you loose a 14-14 D.E. on a questionable call
- Plaqué
- What you get between your teeth if you don't brush
- Pommel
- Beating your opponent senseless with the hilt of your weapon, for sabre fencers only.
- Principle of Defense
- De grass is always greener on de other side
- Quarte
- A measure of liquid (i.e.
- A quarte of milk. Or indeed a quarton of milk)
- Quinte
- No such word as...
- Redoublement
- Pause during the bout for the fencer to take another breath mint
- Replacement
- What you have to buy quickly at the Paul stand when your last body wire fails.
- Right-of-way
- That driving law you may need to ignore to get to a tournament on time
- Score
- What fencers try to do in the Venue after they've lost a match.
- Second Intention
- What you need to come up with when your attack fails miserably
- Steam fencing
- Fencing in a sauna
- Stop-hit
- Look left, look right, listen, look right again and then hit
- Taking the blade
- To steal someone else's weapon
- Tempo
- Usually moderato, but faster on the rocky bits and the middle eight.
- Touche
- A famous cartoon turtle