curtana the unpointed sword carried in front of English sovereigns at their coronation to represent mercy. The name is recorded from Middle English and comes from Anglo-Latin curtana (spatha) ‘shortened (sword)’, from Old French cortain, the name of a sword belonging to Roland (the point of which was damaged when it was thrust into a block of steel), from cort ‘short’, from Latin curtus ‘cut short’.

curtana pointless sword used at English coronations. XIII. — Al. curtāna fem. (sc. spatha sword) — AN. curtain, OF. cortain name of Roland's sword, so called because it had broken at the point when thrust into a block of steel, f. cort, curt short.