Saber

Hungarian szabla and Polish szablya derived from a Turkic or possibly Slavic root meaning to cut or slash. The saber was a curved, single-edged sword optimized for slashing from horseback — the cut of a riding sword rather than the thrust of an infantry sword. Riders on horses travel quickly; a cut with a curved blade was more effective than a thrust that might miss as the horse moved.

The curved sword tradition came to Eastern Europe from the mounted warriors of the Central Asian steppes: Scythians, Huns, Avars, Mongols, and Ottomans all used curved cavalry swords. The Hungarian hussars — light cavalry who adopted the saber as their primary weapon in the 15th century — brought the weapon westward. By the 17th century, hussar-style cavalry and their sabers had spread across Europe.

Napoleon's cavalry used sabers; so did the US Cavalry in the Indian Wars of the 19th century. The last documented mounted saber charge in US history occurred at the Battle of Buna-Gona in New Guinea in 1943. The Philippine Scouts, using sabers, charged Japanese positions — an anachronism of the Second World War that closed a cavalry tradition stretching back to the Hungarian steppes.

The saber survives in Olympic fencing — one of the three weapons alongside épée and foil. Saber fencing uses a lighter, flexible blade and allows cutting actions with the edge and back of the blade, distinguishing it from the purely thrusting weapons. The cavalry sword became a precision sport.