javelin

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English javelin, also gavelong,^[2][3] borrowed from Middle French javeline,^{[4][3][5][6][7]} a variant or diminutive of Old French javelot (“spear”),^{[8][3][9][10]} which is recorded from the 12th century.^[8] Barnhart and Etymonline also give Old Occitan javelina.^[3][8] The French word is probably of Celtic origin:^{[5][11][8][12][9]} the dictionaries compare Old Irish gabul (“fork”), Welsh gafl (“fork”) and gaflach (“feathered spear”),^{[8][12][9][13]} and Etymonline reconstructs Proto-Celtic *gablakko-, from Proto-Indo-European *ghabholo- (“fork, branch”).^[8] Dictionary.com instead takes Anglo-Norman gavelot and gaveloc from Old English gafeluc, itself from a Celtic word for a spear with a forked head;^[10] Weekley also compared the Old English word.^[14] The earlier form javelot, borrowed directly from French about 1440, did not last.^[3][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A light spear thrown by hand, a dart: 1467, in the Paston Letters, as chafeveleyns,^[2] and about 1475 as gavelong.^[3][2] The OED's first record is from 1513,^[4] and Etymonline dates the word to the late 15th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From 1520 to 1839 the word was also used of a long-shafted weapon for thrusting, a pike or lance,^[4] a sense Merriam-Webster labels archaic.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined it as a spear or half-pike used in the past by foot soldiers and horsemen alike.^[15] Rare uses for a darting snake (1719) and a small fish (1655) did not last.^[4] The figurative use dates from 1850, in Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the heraldic charge from 1866, and the verb, to pierce with a javelin, from 1859, in Tennyson.^[4] In modern athletics the javelin is also the throwing event itself.^[16][6] In Cumberland dialect a javelin was a crowbar.^[17]

Timeline

• 1467 – a light spear thrown by hand, in the Paston Letters.^[2] The OED's first record is from 1513.^[4]
• 1520 – a long thrusting weapon, a pike or lance (obsolete by 1839).^[4]
• 1850 – figurative use, in Elizabeth Barrett Browning.^[4]
• 1859 – verb, to strike or pierce with a javelin, in Tennyson.^[4]
• 1866 – in heraldry, a short barbed spear as a charge.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A light spear thrown by hand, as a weapon or in athletics.^[16][11][4]
2. the javelin: the athletic event of throwing it.^[16][6]
3. (archaic) A long-shafted weapon for thrusting, such as a pike.^[11][4]

Verb

1. To strike or pierce with a javelin, or as if with one.^[11][4]

Related words

• gable
• gaffle

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)