champ clos

champ clos

English

Etymology

From French champ clos, from champ + clos.

Noun

champ clos (plural champs clos)

1. A field officially set aside for the fighting of a knightly duel or tournament: the area enclosed by the lists.
   • 1822, Lord Byron, The Vision of Judgement, stanza 32:

     Such was their power that neither could forget
     His former friend, & future foe—but still
     There was a high, immortal, proud regret
     In either’s eye, as if ’twere less their will
     Than destiny to make the eternal years
     Their date of war, and their “Champ Clos” the Spheres.

   • 1871, “Trial by Battle” in The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume 13, number 2, page 173:

     A municipal champ clos was always raised in the market-place; that of an ecclesiastical seigneur as near as possible to the church; and, in the latter case, the lists were often permanent.

   • 2012, Alfred Hutton, The Sword Through the Centuries:

     In the knightly days single combats were confined to the champ clos, which was never granted where the quarrel was of a frivolous nature, and only the monarch himself, or some great noble the governor of a province, and so holding viceregal powers, had the authority to grant it.