A plowshare—now unfamiliar to most industrial readers in the West—is a sharp edge used to till the land. (The word “share” comes from an original root meaning “to cut,” an etymological history we see in the related word “shear,” as well. A “share” was an instrument for cutting, especially the part of a plow that cuts the earth. From its relation to cutting, a share came to mean also the parts of something that was cut up, which is where we get stock shares. And the verb “to share” in the sense of “divvy up” comes from allocating those parts.) And a sword, of course, is a sharp-edged blade used
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