armlet

[Eng. arm; suffix -let, used as diminutive.] 1. A small arm. 2. A bracelet worn on the upper arm as contradistinguished from one of the ordinary type encircling the wrist. Armlets are of two kinds. (a) Those worn by men in the East as one of the insignia of royal power. Kitto thinks that the אֶצְעָדָה )etsadah), or so-called "bracelet," which the A male kite said he took from the arm of the slain Saul, was an armlet of this symbolic character (2 Sam. i. 10). The same Hebrew word, again rendered "bracelet," occurs in Numb. xxx i. 50, and probably with the same meaning. Armlets of this nature are still seen on Persian, Hindoo, and other sovereigns, and in most cases they are studded with expensive jewels. ARMLETS. "Armlet. Although the word has the same meaning as bracelet, yet the latter is practically so exclusively used to denote the ornament of the wrist, that it seems proper to distinguish by armlet the similar ornament which is worn on the upper arm. There is also this difference between them, that in the East bracelets are generally worn by women, and armlets only by men. The armlet , however, is in use among men only as one of the insignia of sovereign power."Kitto: Bib . Cycl., Art . " Armlet ." (b) Those worn by women in our own and other countries simply for ornament. "Every nymph of the flood her tre es rending, Throws off her armlet of pearl in the main.' Dryden: Albion & Albianus, iii. 3. Armour for the arm.