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javelin

[jav-lin, jav-uh-]
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noun
  1. a light spear, usually thrown by hand.
  2. Track.
    1. a spearlike shaft about 8½ feet (2.7 meters) long and usually made of wood, used in throwing for distance.
    2. Also called javelin throw.a competitive field event in which the javelin is thrown for distance.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to strike or pierce with or as if with a javelin.
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Origin of javelin

1505–15; < Middle French javeline, by suffix alteration from javelot, Anglo-French gavelot, gaveloc, probably < Old English gafeluc, *gafeloc ≪ British Celtic *gablākos presumably, a spear with a forklike head; compare MIr gablach forked branch, javelin, MWelsh gaflach (apparently < OIr), derivative of Old Irish gabul fork, forked branch, cognate with Old Breton gabl, Welsh gafl
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for javelin

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • In addition, they are taught to shoot with the bow and to fling the javelin.

    Cyropaedia

    Xenophon

  • And here we will state shortly the most effective method of hurling the javelin.

  • But not in words does the Trojan hero frame his reply: for he hurls his javelin at the foe.

  • The monarch rose in his car and whirled a javelin at the gates.

    The Infernal Marriage

    Benjamin Disraeli

  • They attempted to withdraw the javelin, but could not move it.

British Dictionary definitions for javelin

javelin

noun
  1. a long pointed spear thrown as a weapon or in competitive field events
  2. the javelin the event or sport of throwing the javelin
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Word Origin

C16: from Old French javeline, variant of javelot, of Celtic origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for javelin

n.

late 15c., from Middle French javeline (15c.), fem. diminutive of Old French javelot "a spear," probably from Gaulish (cf. Old Irish gabul "fork;" Welsh gafl "fork," gaflach "feathered spear"), ultimately from PIE *ghabholo- "a fork, branch of a tree." Also found in Italian (giavelotto) and Middle High German (gabilot). Javelot also was borrowed in Middle English, but this is the form of the word that has endured.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper