GURPS identifies several specific swords by fairly modern names.
For a long time there was rarely any term but "sword" for any given sword.
To distinguish between different kinds of swords descriptive terms were added.
So when a character walks into an armorer's shop and asks for a "broadsword" they're really giving a quite specific description of a particular weapon unless a GURPS broadsword is what everyone means when they say sword.
Of course, with all the variety of swords that are available in the typical fantasy world, the modern terms or something like them will likely come into use.
That variety is itself somewhat anachronistic. Swords tended to be of the same style for a given era and region for most everyone. When a new design came along, if it gave an advantage over previous models, it became widely adopted.
For a long time there was rarely any term but "sword" for any given sword.
To distinguish between different kinds of swords descriptive terms were added.
So when a character walks into an armorer's shop and asks for a "broadsword" they're really giving a quite specific description of a particular weapon unless a GURPS broadsword is what everyone means when they say sword.
Of course, with all the variety of swords that are available in the typical fantasy world, the modern terms or something like them will likely come into use.
That variety is itself somewhat anachronistic. Swords tended to be of the same style for a given era and region for most everyone. When a new design came along, if it gave an advantage over previous models, it became widely adopted.