Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A light spear or lance, especially one with a short shaft and long blade for close combat, used by Bantu peoples of southern Africa.
- n. A southern African tree (Curtisia dentata) having wood used for making spears or lances.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- See assagai.
Wiktionary
- n. A slim hardwood spear or javelin with an iron tip, especially those used by Bantu peoples of Southern Africa.
- n. The tree species Curtisia dentata, because its wood is traditionally used to made assegais.
- v. To spear with an assegai.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Same as assagai.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the slender spear of the Bantu-speaking people of Africa
Etymologies
- From French azagaie (now zagaie) or Portuguese azagaia, Spanish azagaya, from colloquial Arabic الزغاية (al-zaghaya), from Berber zaġāya ("spear"). (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete French azagaie, probably from Old Spanish azagayah, from Arabic az-zaġāya : al-, the + Berber zaġāya, spear. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Another example, the Zulu warriors that fought the British over in Africa used the assegai, which is really just a fancy spear and couldn't make any Spartan jaws drop in awe, maybe in laughter or curiosity, but certainly not in awe.”
“Bushman (who does not desire to kill them!) and the slender "assegai" of the Bechuana, the lion has little or no fear of man.”
“The sergeant, in the act of climbing over the tailboard, let out a hell of a shriek; I glimpsed his face, red and staring, and his arm flung out to point, and then his eyes stared horribly, and he slumped down into the dust, with a throwing assegai between his shoulders, his limbs thrashing wildly.”
“I came dizzily to my feet, to stare at the empty ravine, with a great black cloud billowing in the air above it, a few shreds of rope and timber dangling from the far lip, and on this side, lying in the dust, a single assegai.”
“Suddenly Ki-Gor was beside him, hacking and stabbing with the assegai.”
“His spine prickling, Ki-Gor stepped back a pace and shifted his grip on the assegai blade.”
“Silently, he offered the butt end of his assegai for Robert to hold, and the oddly assorted pair moved slowly down the path.”
“Ki-Gor landed lightly on his feet and instantly struck with the assegai blade in his right hand.”
“Ki-Gor reached down, shook Helene's shoulder roughly, and seized the blade of the assegai.”
“At the head of the party, Ki-Gor picked his way cautiously, an assegai held ready in his right hand.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘assegai’.
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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I, Claudius
Words taken from I, Claudius by Robert Graves.
evocation, aureus, sestertii, denarii, assegai, pilum, framea, sibyl, propitiatory, duenna, tyrannicide, maggoty and 136 more...
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bertilak's Words
antidisestablishm..., feldercarb, wainscoting, eleemosynary, oxymoron, fuliginous, libration, lammergeier, saxifrage, ichor, lambent, smaragdine and 414 more...
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Random
These are just some random words that I might find a list for someday.
troglodytism, chinkle, vasculum, sabz, cucullus, tricornigerous, cuboctahedron, eruca, gamp, pilum, taha, angelhood and 244 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Field Mass
for the same
fanon, armet, wether, filibuster, shadoof, shabrack, mai, sainfoin, sand-crack, panoply, guerdon, flunky and 233 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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W.C.Fields Lexicon
antithesis, assegai, cognomen, diaphanous, drat!, effulgent, euphonious, fetlock, jabbernowl, metatarsal, moon calf, mother-of-pearl and 10 more...
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Military
skunk works, armiger, coistrel, chasseur, bogatyr, vexillum, vivandière, cantiniere, sutler, fantassin, habergeon, cascabel and 65 more...
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the armourer
Armour and weapons, and the occasional soldier.
gauntlet, vambrace, ballista, arbalest, trebuchet, sabre, epee, foil, flamberge, katana, dagger, switchblade and 80 more...
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Heart of Darkness
My word list from Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness."
pacifically, trireme, concertina, sententiously, alienist, rapacious, lugubrious, moribund, prevaricator, sepulchral, assegai, declivity and 9 more...
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Ulysses
Words from James Joyce's novel.
cozen, trull, beshrew, resile, auspicate, objurgate, quondam, aprosopia, catamenia, antelucan, serried, bemoil and 13 more...
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Heart of Darkness and Other Tales
Words gathered while reading works of Joseph Conrad.
gnomically, inarticulacy, emendation, palaver, aldermanic, calabash, opprobrious, immure, sea-reach, architecturally, mizzen, illusoriness and 60 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for assegai.
knitandpurl "Here-elsewhere: with deadly violence, a mixture of countries traveled, pieces of a life torn to shreds, a body scraped off the ground, appearance peculiar and untidy, blood stains; sweat, strife, toil: incursion of rebel assegais where the mountain rises up in fortification."
Talismano by Abdelwahab Meddeb, translated by Jane Kuntz, p 6 of the Dalkey Archive paperback Sep 12, 2011