assegai
Americannoun
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the slender javelin or spear of the Bantu-speaking people of southern Africa.
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a southern African tree, Curtisia dentata, of the dogwood family, from whose wood such spears are made.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a southern African cornaceous tree, Curtisia faginea, the wood of which is used for making spears
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a sharp light spear, esp one made of this wood
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of assegai
First recorded in 1615–25; earlier azagaia, from Portuguese, from Arabic az zaghāyah, equivalent to al “the” + Berber zaghāyah “assegai”
Vocabulary lists containing assegai
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They have brought with them a traditional Zulu assegai spear and a British boot plate, which was found on the battlefield, for the museum.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2015
The 19th century Zulu King Shaka adapted this long spear into a broad sword, the stabbing assegai.
From Time Magazine Archive
At one point, he raised his assegai into the air for emphasis and accidentally hit the curtain wire above him, which made a sharp noise and caused the curtain to sway.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Yengwa draped himself with a blanket, rolled up a newspaper to imitate an assegai, and began to stride back and forth reciting the lines from the praise song.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
After a minute, he stopped walking, faced us, and, newly energized, exclaimed that this incident — the assegai striking the wire — symbolized the clash between the culture of Africa and that of Europe.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
Stamping their feet, beating on their shields with their assegais and roaring the war cry usutu!, the warrior impis, arrayed like the right and left horns of the buffalo, would begin encircling the foe.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is usually one man alone who does this, and he has only a bundle of assegais under his left arm.
From McClure's Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1 by Various
Their weapons were primarily bows and arrows, but they also possessed assegais, 806 and knob-kerries.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 7 "Horticulture" to "Hudson Bay" by Various
He looked around at the house, at the trophy of assegais on the wall, at the lion’s skin on the hearth, the yellow eyes glaring, and the red mouth set in an everlasting snarl.
From The Golden Rock by Glanville, Ernest
The waggon-boys heard it also, and armed with assegais and sticks were on the bank almost as soon as I was; but there was no sign of crocodile or bullock.
From Jock of the Bushveld by Fitzpatrick, Percy, Sir
We should be assegaied in a moment if we were to go down; let’s go back to our old look-out.”
From The Young Colonists A Story of the Zulu and Boer Wars by Henty, G.A.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
