assegai

Meanings

Noun

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

Verb

• To spear with an assegai.

Origin

• 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 زغاية, from Proto-Berber *zaġāya.