Targe (from Old Franconian *targa "shield", Proto-Germanic *targo "border") was a general word for shield in late Old English. Its diminutive target came to mean an object to be aimed at in the 18th century. Old Low Franconian is the language ancestral to the Low Franconian languages, including Dutch. ... Map of the Pre-Roman Iron Age culture(s) associated with Proto-Germanic, ca 500 BC-50 BC. The area south of Scandinavia is the Jastorf culture Proto-Germanic, the proto-language believed by scholars to be the common ancestor of the Germanic languages, includes among its descendants Dutch, Yiddish... Statue showing a Gallic shield with a butterfly boss. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... A target can signify: from ca. ...

The term refers to various types of shields used by infantry troops from the 13th to 16th centuries. More specifically, a targe was a concave shield fitted with two straps on the inside, one adjustable by a buckle, to be attached to the forearm, and the other fixed as a grip for the left hand. These shields were mostly made of iron or iron-plated wood. From the 15th century, the term could also refer to special shields used for jousting. Jousting is a staple entertainment at renaissance fairs. ...

From the early 17th century, until the Battle of Culloden, in 1746, the Scottish Highlander's main means of defence in battle was his targe. This was a circular shield between 18" and 21" in diameter. The inside of the targe was formed from two very thin layers of flat wooden boards, with the grain of each layer at right angles to the other. They were fixed together with small wooden pegs, and formed a kind of "plywood". The front was covered with a tough cowhide which was often decorated with embossed celtic style patterns. This was fixed to the wood with many brass, or in some cases, silver, nails, and occasionally brass plates were also fixed to the face for strength and decoration. Some targes had centre bosses of brass, and a few of these could accept a long steel spike which screwed into a small "puddle" of lead which was fixed to the wood, under the boss. When not in use, the spike could be unscrewed and placed in a sheath on the back of the targe.

The back of the targe was usually covered in deerskin, and a very few had some packing of straw etc. behind this. Although all the old targes show signs of handles and armstraps, of various designs, there is very little evidence to indicate that there was any strap for carrying the targe over the shoulder.

Targes faces tend to be of two main design types - Concentric circles , or a centre boss with subsidiary bosses around this. There are a few notable exceptions, one of the most beautiful being a targe in Perth museum in Scotland, which is basically of a star design. Although some targe designs appear to have been more popular than others, there is very little to indicate that there ever were "clan" designs. The nearest that one might come to finding a "clan" design is possibly the four identical targes which came from the family armoury at Castle Grant. It appears more likely that targe designs were individual to their owner. During the 1745/46 Jacobite uprising, a William Lindsay, who was a wright in Perth made hundreds of targes for Bonnie Prince Charlie's army. He made a distinction in price between an "officer's targe" and an ordinary targe.

After the Battle of Culloden, the carrying of the targe would have been banned, and many would have been destroyed, or put to other uses. Those which do remain appear to be of quite intricate patterns, and are well decorated, indicating that they would have originally belonged to important people.