Obs. Also 8 spear. [var. of SPIRE sb.1 (cf. SPEAR sb.2).] A branch or prong of a deer’s horn. (Freq. in Topsell’s work.)
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 327. They [sc. the horns] are sharp…, no where smooth but in the tops of the speers.
1658. Rowland, Topsell’s Four-f. Beasts, 97. These [harts] do excell all other in the beauty of horns,… branching forth into many speers. Ibid. 98. At one year old they have nothing but small bunches,… at three years they grow forked into two speers. [Hence in Blome Gentl. Recreat. (1686), Dict. Rust. (1704), s.v. Hart, Chambers, Cycl. (1728), s.v. Head, etc.]
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., III. v. 113. [The stag’s] horns are called his head; when simple, the first year they are called broches; the third year, spears.
