assegai

English

A guard with assegai in South Africa, 1943.

Alternative forms

Etymology

From French azagaie (now zagaie) or Portuguese azagaia, Spanish azagaya, and later in the forms that have become most common borrowed from Afrikaans assegaai, from colloquial Arabic اَلزَّغَايَة (az-zaḡāya), from Proto-Berber *zaġāya (spear).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈæsəɡaɪ/

Noun

assegai (plural assegais)

  1. A slim hardwood spear or javelin with an iron tip, especially those used by Bantu peoples of Southern Africa.
  2. The tree species Curtisia dentata, the wood of which is traditionally used to make assegais.

Translations

Verb

assegai (third-person singular simple present assegais, present participle assegaiing, simple past and past participle assegaied)

  1. To spear with an assegai.

See also

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