Spur
a metal instrument composed of a shank, neck, and prick or rowel, fastened to the heel of a horseman to goad his horse to greater speed. Its use cannot with certainty be traced further back than Roman times. Early spurs had no neck, a prick being riveted to the shank. Prick spurs had straight necks in the 11th century and bent ones in the 12th. Rowels first appeared early in the 14th. The spurs of mediæval knights were gilt and those of esquires silvered. "To win his spurs" meant to gain knighthood.