Confusingly enough, glaives can be either of two things. The word itself is French for gladius, and in this language it’s what glaive refers to – along with any other sword if you’re a thespian. In English however it is most commonly used to refer to what would be called a fauchard in French, literally a reaper.
Going by that definition, glaives are hafted infantry weapons featuring a broad, single-edged blade with a curved edge and a varying amount of protuding spikes or hooks, from none at all to a few. Readers will note that there is no particularly rigid standard for the shape of polearm blades, leading to a variety of overlapping name for what really is a random list of blade(s)/spike(s)/hook(s) configurations. Glaives through their simplicity tend to be pretty recognizable as a family.
This type of weapon along with many other polearms was used by foot soldiers of the high and late Middles Ages.
Additionally, even in English, some fascine knives and short swords were called glaives because of their French origins, such as the Mle1816 or the American Model 1832 inspired by it. These weapons were designed at a time when people became fascinated with Antiquity, much like during the Renaissance, leading to a surge in neoclassicism even in weapon designs.
