assegai Hear it!

assegai definition

as·se·gai (as′ə gī′)

noun

  1. a slender spear or javelin with an iron tip, used in S Africa
  2. a tree (Curtisia faginea) of the dogwood family, whose hard wood is used to make such spears

Etymology: Port azagaia < colloquial Ar az-zaghāya < az, for al, the + Berber zaghāyah, spear, prob. < Berber (cf. Tuareg (a)zegiz, long-armed dagger)

Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2009 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Comments
Improve this definition.
Do you have more to add? Share your linguistic knowledge or observation.
/Register to save your comments.