Noun

(en noun)

A slim hardwood spear or javelin with an iron tip, especially those used by Bantu peoples of Southern Africa.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=My client welcomed the judge […] and they disappeared together into the Ethiopian card-room, which was filled with the assegais and exclamation point shields Mr. Cooke had had made at the sawmill at Beaverton.}}

* 1902 , (Joseph Conrad), (Heart of Darkness) , Tank Form 2007, p.99:

Native mats covered the clay walls; a collection of spears, assegais , shields, knives was hung up in trophies.

* 1922 , (James Joyce), :

A birdchief, bluestreaked and feathered in war panoply with his assegai , striding through a crackling canebrake over beechmast and acorns.

* 1994 , (Nelson Mandela), (Long Walk to Freedom) , Abacus 2010, p. 32:

Without a word, he took my foreskin, pulled it forward, and then, in a single motion, brought down his assegai .

The tree species , the wood of which is traditionally used to make assegais.