Obs. Also 4 iaumber, iamber, 7 jamar. [ME. a. AF. ja(u)mbere = F. jambiére, armor that covers the leg, deriv. of jambe leg.] Armor for the legs; a greave. Hence † Jambered (jamar’d) a., armed with greaves.
13[?]. Guy Warw. (A.), II. cxviii. Þe … swerd doun gan glide … Þat gambisoun & iambler Boþe it karf atvo y-fere.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace (Rolls), 10026. Hym self was armed fynly wel Wyþ sabatons, & spores, & iaumbers of stel.
c. 1400. Sege Jerus., 1114. Fyf hundred fiȝtyng men,… In jepouns & jambers, Jewes þey wer.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XVI. xxxix. I. 489. The mourrions, iambriers, or grieues, of braue men in times past.
1668. Glanvill, Plus Ultra, 66. [The microscope] represents that little Creature [a flea] as bristled and jamar’d … if the mentioned bristles and jamars are in the Glass, and not in the Animal, they would appear … in all the small Creatures … look’d on through the Microscope.
1706. Phillips, Jambier, a Greave or Leg-piece; an Armour for the Leg.
