Bayonet

A bayonet (from Old Frenchbayonette, now spelt baïonnette) is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped melee weapon designed to be mounted on the end of the barrel of a rifle, carbine, musket or similar long firearm, allowing the gun to be utilized as a spear in close combat.

The term has been claimed to have derived from the town of Bayonne in southwestern France, although this is entirely without factual basis as the town has no history of widespread cutlery manufacture, and seems to stem from Voltaire's epic poem, La Henriade of 1723. Voltaire was in no manner a military historian and was writing about the battle of Ivry, fought on the fourteenth of March in 1590, so the contention is tenuous at best.

From the early 17th to the 20th century, it was an infantry melee weapon used for both offensive and defensivetactics, usually when charging in mass formations (human wave attacks). In contemporary times, the armed forces of many countries armed forces consider bayonets a weapon of last resort as they are rarely used in combat, although they are used regularly for non-combat purposes such as military parades, crowd control and as utility knives.