A word ‘I was delighted to meet’: why we must now bid Auf Wiedersehen to Hounskull as the name for the ‘pig-faced’ basinet

Abstract

This article examines the introduction and use of the word hounskull and its variants in arms and armour scholarship. Assessing the definition through previous studies and original sources, it demonstrates that the word has been misinterpreted and misused as a name for a specific type of medieval helmet from the late-nineteenth century to the present day. Some (very tentative) speculation is offered as to what the hounskull might, in fact, be.