spear-shaft
Also 1, 3 sperescæft, 4–5 spereschaft(e, 5 spereshafte, speyre-chaft.
[f. spear n.1 Cf. OHG. sperascaft (MHG. sperschaft, G. speerschaft), MSw. spärsskapt.]
The long shaft or handle to which the spear-head is fixed. Also transf. (quot. 1841).
| a 900 Wærferth tr. Gregory's Dial. 14 Þær hi ealle ongunnon heora hors mid heora sperescæftum þerscan. c 1205 Lay. 14752 He nom ænne spere-scæft Þe wes long & swiþe stærc. 1382 Wyclif 1 Chron. xx. 5 Whos spere schaft was as the beme of websters. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xii. xxiv, Locusta..haþ longe legges, as a spere schafte. c 1420 Contin. Brut 337 William Walworth.. slow Iack Straw, and anon ryȝt þere dede smyȝt of his hed, and sette it vp apon a spere-schafte. 1483 Wardr. Acc. in Antiq. Rep. (1807) I. 49, viij spereshaftes with their chapitulls. a 1700 Ken Edmund Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 26 Fit barbed Heads for their Spear-shafts to make. 1841 H. Miller O.R. Sandst. vii. 119 They form a continuous convex stratum in the sandstone spear-shaft. 1887 Morris Odyssey x. 170 As I steadied myself with my spear-shaft. |