assagai

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“
Their weapons were the spear or assagai, and a sort of wooden club, occasionally a crescent-shaped battle-axe, and still less frequently the bow.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Variant of assegai.

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Examples (50)

  • His Bootchuana companion at that time threw his assagai, which entered the lion's back. —  Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals
  • The hand grasped a light assagai, or darting spear. —  The Settler and the Savage
  • Again and again they had to fight the Kafir savage and drive him back into his native jungles, and each time they had more trouble in doing so than before, because the Kafir was an apt pupil, and learned to substitute the gun for the assagai; but he did not learn to substitute enlightened vigour for blind passion, therefore the white man beat him as before He did more than that. —  The Settler and the Savage
  • All, however, remained dark, and the time dragged slowly in the same monotonous way, making me wish I could walk side by side with my companion, who seemed to be far more cautious in the darkness than I thought necessary We must have gone, as I hoped in a perfectly straight direction, for what appeared to be nearly an hour, and I was getting desperate about our slow progress, when suddenly the assagai-shaft was jigged sharply and then dragged; and for a moment I saw a faint spark of light far ahead, due to the fact that Joeboy had gone down suddenly upon hands and knees. —  Charge! A Story of Briton and Boer
  • In an instant the glistening blade of my companion's assagai was pointed at the foreloper's throat, making him recoil; and then, in response to a threatening thrust or two, the man picked up his long, thin bamboo and replaced his knife, while Joeboy, pointing fiercely to me, rated the man in his own tongue What is it, Joeboy?" —  Charge! A Story of Briton and Boer
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Etymologies (2)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also written assegai, assagay, assegay, and formerly assagaie, azagaia (also zagaye, zagaie, from French zagaie), and early modern English archegaye (from French archegaie, archigaie, arcigaye); from French azegaye, azagaye, from Portuguese azagaia, Spanish azagaya (Spanish formerly also without the art., zagaya, later Italian zagaglia, French zagaie, above), from Arabic az-zaghāyah, from al, the, + zaghāyah, a spear: a native Berber word. Cf. lancegay.
  2. from assagai, n.
 

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/ˈæsəgai/
by American Heritage

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