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javelin

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English

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Etymology

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From Middle English [Term?], from Old French javelline, diminutive of javelot, diminutive of *javel, from Vulgar Latin *gabalus, from Gaulish gabulum (compare Old Irish gabul (“fork”), Welsh gafl), from Proto-Celtic *gablā (“fork, forked branch”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰeh₁bʰ-. The Old French term was also borrowed into Middle Low German as gaveline, and into Middle High German as gabilot. Cognate with gavelock, gaffle.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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javelin (plural javelins)

  1. A light spear thrown with the hand and used as a weapon.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 25:7–8:
      And when Phinehas the sonne of Eleazar, the sonne of Aaron the Priest saw it, hee rose vp from amongst the Congregation, and tooke a iauelin in his hand. And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them thorow, the man of Israel, and the woman, thorow her belly: So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel.
    • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:
      Flies the javelin swifter to its mark, / Launched by the vigour of a Roman arm?
    • 1846 February, Henry Melville, chapter X, in Typee […] : A Peep at Polynesian Life, London: John Murray, page 73:
      With what apprehensions we proceeded, ignorant at what moment we might be greeted by the javelin of some ambushed savage!
    • 1898, Homer, “Book XII”, in Samuel Butler, transl., The Iliad of Homer: Rendered into English Prose for the use of those who cannot read the original, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 189:
      As a lion or wild boar turns fiercely on the dogs and men that attack him, while these form a solid wall and shower their javelins as they face him—his courage is all undaunted, but his high spirit will be the death of him; […]
    • 2023, Sufjan Stevens, “Javelin (To Have and To Hold)”, in Javelin:
      Searching through snow / For the javelin I had not / Meant to throw right at you / For if it had hit its mark / There’d be blood in the place / Where you stood
  2. A metal-tipped spear thrown for distance in an athletic field event.
  3. A javelinfish (Coelorinchus australis).

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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javelin (third-person singular simple present javelins, present participle javelining or javelinning, simple past and past participle javelined or javelinned)

  1. (transitive) To pierce with a javelin.
    • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Vivien”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 142:
      Furrowing a giant oak, and javelining / With darted spikes and splinters of the wood
    • 1985, Christopher Middleton, “Commodus”, in Selected Writings, Manchester: Carcanet Press, published 1989, →ISBN, section 4 (From Serpentine (1985)), page 145:
      Eventually ostriches arrived and with arrows I shot them in the burning arena with arrows tipped with small bronze crescents Saw flies buzz at the array of javelinned lions Saw the looks on faces crookedly aghast when before them I hoisted a hacked off ostrich head and wagged my own and grinned
  2. (transitive) To throw like a javelin.
    • 1926, “The Exchequer”, in Aids to the Study of European Governments: Brief Readings, Reprints of Constitutions, Chronologies, Diagrams, Questions, and Topics for Special Study (with References) Prepared for Use in Government 1 at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Co-operative Society, →OCLC, section XII (Parliamentary Finance), page 106:
      He will have questions of all sorts javelined at him from the benches on both sides, from above the gangway and from below it.
    • 1938 May 4, W. E. Bard, “The Unknown”, in The Atlanta Journal, volume LVI, number 70, Atlanta, Ga., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 6, column 3:
      There is a thing no man may name; / It comes like beauty, goes like flame. / It haunts dim labyrinths of time / And enters every poet’s rhyme. / Its cry is heard upon the wind / When it is high and javelinned, / And on still nights its steps are heard, / Soft as the footfalls of a bird.
    • 1998 August 16, Marjorie Daniel, “Essay: Nature’s Broom”, in The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Oh., →ISSN, →OCLC, “Sunday Magazine” section, page 6:
      The year the tornado swept through, it scattered the debris of two garages and their contents outward for hundreds of yards. An 8-foot 2-by-4 was javelinned through my bedroom wall; its blunt end stared at me just three feet short of my bed.
    • 2009, Bruce Weber, “untitled poem for the twin towers”, in The Breakup of My First Marriage: Poetry, New York, N.Y.: Rogue Scholars Press, →ISBN, page 6:
      good morning city. another day of digging. wrapping. numbering. dnaing. […] of reciting a poem by li po. about forever. about wrapping forever into a ball. about wrapping forever into a ball and javelinning it out to sea. the beautiful beautiful sea.
    • 2022, Jem Calder, “Serenity Prayer”, in Reward System, London: Faber & Faber, →ISBN, “A Restaurant Somewhere Else” section:
      To retrieve the mophead she would have to immerse her hand into the bucket’s stagnant grey water and kitchen-floor debris. At the thought of doing so, she javelinned the mop handle onto the floor, the speed and violence of which action, afterward, made her feel deranged.
  3. (intransitive) To fall like a javelin.
    • 1922 October 7, Captain [Aylward Edward] Dingle, “Ocean Magic”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 195, number 15, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Curtis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 72:
      For answer the ship righted as she rolled upon another great swell, leaned as far the other side, and crashed, bows first, into a cleft rock under water which held her as in a vise while her jib boom flew up in splinters, and her foretopgallant and royal mast, with yards and gear and sails, tore loose aloft and javelined down until brought up short by the involved rigging.
    • 1967, Clement Agunwa, “Performing a Duty Unassigned”, in More Than Once: A Novel, London: Longmans, →OCLC, page 68:
      The ants broke loose and attacked. In an attempt to beat them off, Ejeka lost grip of his whip which javelinned earthward.
    • 2010 March, Thomas E. Sniegoski, chapter 17, in Where Angels Fear to Tread (Remy Chandler; 3), New York, N.Y.: Roc, →ISBN, page 272:
      Jagged bolts of lightning javelined down from the sky, attempting to skewer him with their electrical touch.
    • 2017, Iain Hollis, “Life begins at 40”, in Box of Frogs: Memoirs of a Canoeing Cyclist, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN, page 66:
      One man dropped his rifle from high up and it javelined down, with the muzzle burying itself deep in the ground.

See also

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