For example, are any of these terms correct?
- two hand sword
- two hands sword
- two-hand sword
- two handed sword
- two-handed sword
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1I would likely take a two-handed sword to have two handles itself, not necessarily used with my hands. I'd use two-hand to indicate use by two hands.– Yosef BaskinCommented Aug 19, 2022 at 13:29
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3 Answers
The proper term is "two-handed". The ngram below shows that in comparison "two hand" is hardly used.
However, this argument makes abstraction of an important fact pointed out by user Global Charm in the comments: "two hand" has a meaning of its own. Anyway, this fact has little incidence on the present answer.
Whereas "two-handed" means (most often) (A) "conceived to be handled using two hands", "two-hand" means (often enough) (B) "made or performed using optionally two hands rather than one". We have below three typical cases of this use of "two-hand" (two of them are of a well kown sort and all come from written sources).
- Learning a two—hand backhand will give you a very powerful, versatile shot. (tennis)
- Today we are going to learn how to execute a two-hand overhead throw. (basket-ball)
- Research has also documented a two-hand advantage in Braille reading and in tactile pattern-recognition tasks (Braille reading)
Nevertheless, this usage is not perfect and this is seen first in the following example where "two-hand" is actually taken as "two-handed" (from Google Books).
- A two-hand device requires application of both hands to operate the power press and shall require manual operation of both controls until a point is reached in the cycle where opening is such that the operator cannot remove his hands
It seems possible to deduce now that user Global Charm's objection points to the first ngram being apparently worthless since "two hand" in "two hand sword" should have two meanings. However, this is not so; "two hand" has to modify "sword", and as such can't be explained by meaning "B". This rather evident contention is confirmed by means of an ngram obtained after the addition of the indefinite article: the same curve results (approximately).
This confirms a real misuse of "two hand" (according to the ideal of two existing definitions).
A more general ngram (below), in which the noun can be anything, shows that this usage is the correct one for all nouns.
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The proper term is the one that conveys the author’s intended meaning. Two-hand and two- handed have different meanings. Frequency of use is not a good indicator here, any more than it would be in finding the “proper” color for a rose.– user205876Commented Aug 19, 2022 at 17:32
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@GlobalCharm I hadn't thought about this second definition; it is an important fact that should be mentioned. However, as pertains to the ngram argument I believe your remarks have no incidence on my results, that being so because of a particularity of the context. I made an addition to my post so as to show that (and add the definition you metion).– LPHCommented Aug 19, 2022 at 20:49
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You mention "two head" in paragraph 2, after the first ngram. I definitely agree that "two head" has its own meaning and that it has little/no relevance to your answer (or to the question, for that matter. Am I missing something? Commented Aug 19, 2022 at 23:19
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@PapaPoule You are not, that is what I meant, and in fact you caught a little imprecision (little/no relevance); as I thought about this again I saw that I am the one who missed something; there is a significant incidence: no possible generalization (3rd ngram, ¶ above it). The nature of the noun is determinig; perhaps you noticed. For instance, for "two-hand backhand" the action (backhand) is the same (1/2 hands), but for "two-hand sword" the sword is not the same as for "one-hand sword". I will preserve my answer as it is until you have checked, it and then I'll delete this 3rd ngram.– LPHCommented Aug 20, 2022 at 4:37
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1I'm not sure you understood what Papa Poule was saying. You said "head", as in the thing on top of the body, where the eyes and mouth and brain are. Are you sure that's the word you wanted to use there? Commented Aug 20, 2022 at 5:28
Please note: This appears to be about weaponry (you used "wielded" in the question). Weaponry has its own domain specific jargon and technical terms.
Generally there are 3 basic categories of melee weapons:
- One-handed weapon: needs 1 hand to wield.
- Two-handed weapon: needs 2 hands to wield. A very strong person might be able to wield it one-handed, but not for long (because it is heavy) and with less efficiency because the weapon is to cumbersome (size and balance) for purely one-handed operation.
- Hand-and-a-half of bastard weapon: Can be wielded both ways. (The term "bastard" is, as far as I know, only used with swords.)
Hand and a half weapons typically are the same size/weight to about 1.5x bigger/heavier than one-handed weapons.
They usually have an extra long handle/grip that allows the wielder to place the second hand on the handle too, to put more power into a blow or cut and/or to better guide the weapon if precision is required.
Depending on context you will have to decide what best describes your weapon. This may depend on how and by who the weapon is used.
E.g. For a hobbit a man-sized one-handed sword will probably serve as a bastard sword or even a two-handed sword. (In the "Lord of the Rings" the hobbits use short swords that are actually knives for men or elves.)
If something is two-handed it may as well mean that two persons are required to use it. Two-handed is also applied to a person without a dominating hand (i.e. a person is neither left-handed or right-handed).
There is also the term ambidextrous which is also applied to both persons and objects — while an ambidexter is always a person, but that latter term is archaic
But there is one more term: bimanual. And this one is applied only to items
(But if anyone is speaking about wielding a sword or a mace, then two-handed is the correct description.)
