javelin

[jav-lin, jav-uh-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR javelin ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a light spear, usually thrown by hand.

Track.

a spearlike shaft about 8½ feet (2.7 meters) long and usually made of wood, used in throwing for distance.
Also called javelin throw.a competitive field event in which the javelin is thrown for distance.

verb (used with object)

to strike or pierce with or as if with a javelin.

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. 2019

Related Words for javelin

lance, weapon, dart, harpoon

Examples from the Web for javelin

Contemporary Examples of javelin

Like his predecessors, his background was as a javelin thrower.
The Aftermath of Disney’s ‘Million Dollar Arm’
Alex Suskind
May 16, 2014
But Javelin Strategy estimates that in 2012, credit-card-fraud losses were approximately $10 billion.
How to Commit a $200 Million Scam: Inside the Year’s Most Shocking Credit Card Fraud
Daniel Gross
February 6, 2013
Without the javelin in his hand he walked through the entire delivery for us in slow motion, describing it as he did so.
Philip Roth’s Departure from Writing is Well Deserved
Bernard Avishai
November 14, 2012
Jeremy Hunt has introduced a new sport to the Games, to go with the discus, shot put, javelin.
20 Reasons to Feel Good About the 2012 Olympics in London
The Telegraph
July 30, 2012

Historical Examples of javelin

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.
On Horsemanship
Xenophon
But not in words does the Trojan hero frame his reply: for he hurls his javelin at the foe.
The Aeneid of Virgil
Virgil
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.
The American Family Robinson
D. W. Belisle

British Dictionary definitions for javelin

javelin

noun

a long pointed spear thrown as a weapon or in competitive field events

the javelin the event or sport of throwing the javelin

Word Origin for javelin

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

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.