assegai

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Related to assegai: Assegai tree

as·se·gai

or as·sa·gai (ăs′ə-gī′)

1. A light spear or lance used by Bantu peoples of southern Africa.

2. A tall evergreen tree (Curtisia dentata) of southern Africa, having durable wood used for making weapons, furniture, and other wooden products, and bark that is used in traditional medicine.

[Early Modern English, from Middle French azagaye (probably via Old Spanish azagaya, a small spear or javelin), from Arabic az-zaġāya, the spear : al-, the + zaġāya, spear, of Berber origin; akin to Tuareg tăhġait, bayonet, from earlier *tăzġait (*tă-...-t, feminine noun circumfix).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

assegai

(ˈæsəˌɡaɪ) or

assagai

n, pl -gais

1. (Plants) a southern African cornaceous tree, Curtisia faginea, the wood of which is used for making spears

2. (Arms & Armour (excluding Firearms)) a sharp light spear, esp one made of this wood

[C17: from Portuguese azagaia, from Arabic az zaghāyah, from al the + zaghāyah assegai, from Berber]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

as•se•gai

or as•sa•gai

(ˈæs əˌgaɪ)

n., pl. -gais.

1. an iron-tipped spear used by Bantu peoples of S Africa.

2. a S African tree, Curtisia dentata, of the dogwood family, from whose wood such weapons were made.

[1615–25; earlier azagaia < Portuguese < Arabic az zaghāyah]

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Noun

assegai - the slender spear of the Bantu-speaking people of Africa

assagai

lance, spear, shaft - a long pointed rod used as a tool or weapon

Translations

assegai

n → Assagai m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

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References in classic literature ?

Few have known it, for I have kept it locked in my breast, lest, thought I live now under the law of the White Man, and the Great Queen is my chieftainess, an assegai still might find this heart did any know my name.

I felt you start; you start as the regiment of the Bees started when Mopo walked before their ranks, and from the assegai in his hand the blood of Chaka[1] dropped slowly to the earth.

He stalked across the mountains and the veldt, his eyes blazed like the lightning, and in his hand he shook a little assegai that was red with blood.

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As for Khiva himself, we buried what remained of him in an ant-bear hole, together with an assegai to protect himself with on his journey to a better world.

"Is it to that land that thou wouldst journey, Incubu?" (a native word meaning, I believe, an elephant, and the name given to Sir Henry by the Kafirs), he said, pointing towards the mountain with his broad assegai.

Umbopa, assegai in hand and a rifle across his shoulders, looked out fixedly across the desert a few paces ahead of us; while the hired natives, with the gourds of water, and Ventvogel, were gathered in a little knot behind.

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In the heat of battle, the earth littered with men skewered and mutilated by Zulu assegai, Private Samuel Wassall spotted an injured comrade sinking beneath the murky waters of Buffalo River.

Call for city memorial TOVC hero of ZuluWar

In the heat of battle, the parchedearth littered with men skewered and mutilated by Zulu assegai, Private Samuel Wassall spotted a figure sinking beneath the murky waters of Buffalo River.

Road named after VC winner - but where's Brum memorial?

Muskets from the Napoleonic Wars, uniforms from the Seven Years War, a targe from Killiecrankie, a pistol from Prestonpans, daggers, dirks, bayonets, basket hilts, claymores, a gas mask from the trenches at Flanders, a V.C., a couple of D.S.O.s, an assegai from the Boer War --you name it, we've won it, and most of it needs polishing, (p.

Performance, Theatrical Engagement and Ambivalence in Two Stage Representations of Scottish Soldiering

Rheinmetall Denel is close to deliver the first production batch of its MO 121 Insensitive HE ammunition in 2015 to an undisclosed Nato customer, the qualification of the whole Assegai family of ammunition being expected within 2017.

Guided ammo ..

And when Abergavenny's Pte Robert Jones - just 21 when he suffered multiple assegai wounds rescuing patients from the Rorke's Drift hospital - was buried in Herefordshire, humiliatingly, his grave didn't face the church like others because he committed suicide, haunted by what happened this day 136 years ago.