| 释义 |
▪ 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.
1625Purchas Pilgrims ii 969 They of Myna or the Golden Coast, their armes are Pikes, or Assagaies, Bowes, and Arrowes. 1773Masson in Phil. Trans. LXVI. 296 They were all armed with hassaguays. 1776Ibid. 295 Being all armed with hassagays, they often throw twenty or thirty..at once. 1789Belsham Ess. I. 489 note, Their zagaye, or half-pike, is very well forged. 1811Scott Don Roderick Concl. xv, Sharper than Polish pike or assagay. 1834Pringle Afr. Sk. xii. 365 The Bushmen retain the ancient arms of the Hottentot race..a light javelin or assagai. 1859R. Burton in Jrnl. R.G.S. XXIX. 136 The spears and assegais. 1879Ld. 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).
1866Treas. Bot. 363 The natives employ it to form shafts for their javelins or Assagays: hence the common name Assagay Tree. 1879Times 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.
1836Editor Grahamstown Jrnl.'s Nar. 185 (Pettman), When only a few yards from the village..he was assegaied. 1863W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting iii. 71 A Kaffir who had threatened to assagai one of Walmsley's Kaffirs. 1879T. Lucas Zulus & Brit. Front. xiii. 275 Killing six Fingoes and assegaing a colonist. 1880Miss Colenso Zulu War 413 They were nearly all assegaied. |