Assagai, assegai

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 savages 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. Ibid. (1776), 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, 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, namely, a light javelin or assagai.

1859.  R. Burton, in Jrnl. R. G. S., XXIX. 136. Hooked twigs, dangling from a string, support the bows and arrows, the spears and assegais.

1879.  Ld. Stratford de Redcliffe, in Times, 29 March, 11/2.

  b.  attrib. Assagai tree, wood, a large South African tree (Curtisia faginea, N.O. 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 April. No less than thirty-seven assegai wounds.

1880.  ‘Silver & Co.,’ S. Africa (ed. 3), 127. In these kloofs grow … the Assegay wood.