'And Florentyn, with hys ax so broun,
All thorgh he smoot
Arm and mayle, and akketoun,
Thorghout hyt bot [bit]';
Octouian, ed. Weber, iii. 205.
'For plate, ne for acketton,
For hauberk, ne for campeson';
Richard Coer de Lion, ed. Weber, ii. 18.
The Glossary to the Percy Folio MS., ed. Hales and Furnivall, has—'Acton, a wadded or quilted tunic worn under the hauberk.—Planché, i. 108.' Thynne, in his Animadversions (Early Eng. Text Soc.), p. 24, says—'Haketon is a slevelesse jackett of plate for the warre, couered withe anye other stuffe; at this day also called a jackett of plate.'
It is certain that the plates were a later addition. It is the mod. F. hoqueton, O. F. auqueton; and it is certain that the derivation is from Arab. al-qoton or al-qutun, lit. 'the cotton'; so that it was originally made of quilted cotton. See auqueton in Godefroy, hoqueton in Devic's Supp. to Littré, and Acton in the New E. Dict.