Now Hist. Forms: α. 4–6 (9) ventayle, 5 -tayll(e, -tayl; 4–6 (9) ventaile, 5–6 -tale, 5 -taill (9 -taille), 4, 9 ventail (5 Sc. wen-). β. 5 ventalle, 5–6 -tall, 6 -tal. [a. OF. ventaille, -taile, ventalle (mod.F. ventail masc., = OProv. ventalha, It. ventaglia), f. vent wind, air. Hence also MHG. vin-, finteile, vintale. A purely English variant is AVENTAIL.
As the sense of ‘breathing-place’ appears to be inapplicable to the earliest use of the word (see sense 1) in French and English, the name may originally have been given to the piece of armor from a real or fancied resemblance to some other article so designated. Other senses of the OF. word (and of the related forms ventele, ventail, and vental) are fan, vane (of a windmill), sluice, shutter, leaf (of a folding door or picture). In OF. romances the ventaille is freq. mentioned as covering the heart or breast: cf. Chaucer, Clerk’s Tale, 1148.]
† 1. A piece of armor protecting the neck, upon which the helmet fitted; a neck-piece. Obs.
α. c. 1330. Roland & V., 863. His ventail he gan vn-lace & smot of his heued in þe place.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), 92. His helme was of so michel miȝt, Was neuer man ouer-comen in fiȝt Þat hadde it on his ventayle.
a. 1400. Sir Perc., 1722. He hitt hym evene one the nekk-bane, Thurgh ventale and pesane.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 14375. Her helmes were on her ventayles sperde.
c. 1450. Lovelich, Grail, xiv. 33. Helmes, hawberkes, & ventaylles also, Alle to the Grownde he dyde hem go.
β. a. 1400. Sqr. lowe Degre, 222. Your basenette shall be burnysshed bryght, Your ventall shalbe well dyght, With starres of gold it shall be set.
2. The lower movable part of the front of a helmet, as distinct from the vizor; latterly, the whole movable part including the vizor.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7030. The duke with a dynt derit hym agayn, Þat the viser & the ventaile voidet hym fro.
c. 1400. Anturs of Arth., xxxii. Then he auaylet vppe his viserne fro his ventalle.
c. 1470. Golagros & Gaw., 567. He braidit vp his ventaill, That closit wes clene.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, cxxiv. 448. Vnder the ventayle of his helme the terys of water fell downe fro his eyen.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., III. ii. 24. Through whose bright ventayle … His manly face … lookt foorth.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, VI. xxvi. Her ventall vp so hie, that he descride Her goodly visage, and her beauties pride.
1802. James, Milit. Dict., Ventail, that part of a helmet which is made to lift up.
1865. Kingston James, Tasso, XX. xii. II. 285. Thro’ the barred ventayle his flushed features shone.
[1869. Boutell, Arms & Armour, viii. 127. This piece, called the mesail, or mursail,… but more generally known in England as the ventaile, or visor, was pierced for both sight and breathing.]
1906. S. Heath, Effigies in Dorset, 10. Sometimes with a movable ‘ventaille’ or visor.
† b. One of the vents or air-holes of this. Obs.–1
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, X. lx. 516. The blood brast oute at the ventayls of his helme.
† 3. Something acting as a sail or fan. Obs.
a. 1529. Skelton, Col. Cloute, 400. [The nuns] Must cast vp theyr blacke vayles, And set vp theyr fucke sayles, To catch wynde with their ventales.
