Most armour terms derive from medieval French. While some words are familiar, others are now quite obscure, so we thought it would be useful to have a brief explanation of what they really mean, and how they apply to the armour we make.
Bracers ~ Couters ~ Gauntlets ~ Greaves ~ Lamés ~ Pauldrons ~ Rerebrace ~ Spaulders ~ Vambrace
Bracers
The archer's variant of the vambrace. Designed to protect the inside of the forearm from both bow string and arrow, bracers fasten on the outside of the arm rather than the inside, as vambraces do. [Examples]
Couters
Elbow defense, in its simplest form a cup spanning the gap between forearm and upper arm armour.
Gauntlets
Jointed armour covering the hand, wrist and forearm. [Examples]
Greaves
Armour for the leg, covering the shin and sometimes extending to the thigh. [Examples]
Lamés
The segmented plates forming pauldrons and spaulders. [Examples]
Pauldrons
Shoulder and upper arm armour combined, which extend to cover parts of the upper chest and back. Essentially an extended spaulder, which they evolved from. [Examples]
Rerebrace
Upper arm armour, most often a single plate. [Examples]
Spaulders
Segmented upper arm and shoulder armour, similar to the pauldron except that they do not cover the arm hole, chest or back. [Examples]
Vambrace
Single-piece forearm armour. Archer's forearm armour are sometimes called bracers, though today the terms are becoming interchangeable. [Examples]