▪ I. assagai, assegai, n.
(ˈæsəgaɪ)
Forms: 6 azagaia, 7 assagaie, 8 hassagay, -guay, 9 assagai, -gay, assegai, -gay; also 7–8 zagaie, zagaye.
[a. F. azagaye (Cotgr.), or Pg. azagaia, Sp. azagaya, a. Arab. az-zaghāyah, i.e. az-= al- the, zaghāyah native Berber word, adopted in Arabic, and thence in Sp. and Pg.; adopted from the Portuguese in Africa by the English and French. The proper spelling is assagai, but assegai was universal in the newspapers in 1879. Formerly also zagaie, as still in Fr.; and in ME. archegaye, q.v.]
A kind of slender spear or lance of hard wood, usually pointed with iron, used in battle. Originally, the native name of a Berber weapon adopted by the Moors; but extended by the Portuguese to the light javelins of African tribespeople generally, and most commonly applied by Englishmen to the missile weapons of the South African tribes.
| 1625 Purchas Pilgrims ii 969 They of Myna or the Golden Coast, their armes are Pikes, or Assagaies, Bowes, and Arrowes. 1773 Masson in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 296 They were all armed with hassaguays. 1776 Ibid. 295 Being all armed with hassagays, they often throw twenty or thirty..at once. 1789 Belsham Ess. I. 489 note, Their zagaye, or half-pike, is very well forged. 1811 Scott Don Roderick Concl. xv, Sharper than Polish pike or assagay. 1834 Pringle Afr. Sk. xii. 365 The Bushmen retain the ancient arms of the Hottentot race..a light javelin or assagai. 1859 R. Burton in Jrnl. R.G.S. XXIX. 136 The spears and assegais. 1879 Ld. Strat. de Redcliffe in Times 29 Mar., They shake the dreaded assegai. |
b. attrib. assagai tree, wood, a large South African tree (Curtisia faginea, family Cornaceæ).
| 1866 Treas. Bot. 363 The natives employ it to form shafts for their javelins or Assagays: hence the common name Assagay Tree. 1879 Times 5 Apr., No less than thirty-seven assegai wounds. 1880 ‘Silver & Co.’ S. Africa (ed. 3) 127 In these kloofs grow..the Assegay wood. |
▪ II. ˈassagai, asse-, v.
[f. prec.]
To pierce with an assagai.
| 1836 Editor Grahamstown Jrnl.'s Nar. 185 (Pettman), When only a few yards from the village..he was assegaied. 1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting iii. 71 A Kaffir who had threatened to assagai one of Walmsley's Kaffirs. 1879 T. Lucas Zulus & Brit. Front. xiii. 275 Killing six Fingoes and assegaing a colonist. 1880 Miss Colenso Zulu War 413 They were nearly all assegaied. |