assegai

noun (plural assegais)

• 1a slender, iron-tipped, hardwood spear used chiefly by southern African peoples.

• 2 (also assegai wood) a South African tree of the dogwood family, which yields hard timber.

  • Curtisia dentata, family Cornaceae

verb (assegais, assegaing, assegaied)

• wound or kill with an assegai: he was a very brave man but he was eventually assegaied