spearcaster

English

WOTD – 11 December 2015

Athlete Abraham Green (1913–1999), throwing the javelin in the Maccabiah Stadium in Tel Aviv in 1938

Three Indigenous Australian weapons from Ridpath's Universal History (1897): a knife, club, and spear with a spearcaster

Etymology

From spear (“long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon”) +‎ caster (“that which casts; one who casts”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈspɪəkɑːstə/, /ˈspɪəkæstə/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

spearcaster (plural spearcasters)

1. A sling-like device used to impart greater impetus to a thrown spear.
   • 1897, John Clark Ridpath, chapter CXCI, in Ridpath's Universal History: An Account of the Origin, Primitive Condition and Ethnic Development of the Great Races of Mankind, and of the Principal Events in the Evolution and Progress of the Civilized Life among Men and Nations, from Recent and Authentic Sources with a Preliminary Inquiry on the Time, Place and Manner of the Beginning. [...] Complete in Sixteen Volumes‎^[1], volume VIII, book xxx, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Jones Brothers Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 706, column 1:

     australian weapons. 1, knife; 2, club; 3, spearcaster.

2. A soldier or guard armed with a spear used as a ranged weapon.
   • 1963, Analog Science Fact / Science Fiction, LXXI, 69:

     She felt near fainting with relief. Not that the blaster solved many problems. It wouldn’t get them out of a city aswarm with archers and spearcasters.

3. A track-and-field athlete who throws a spear or spears; a javelinist, a javelin thrower.
   • 1969, Francis Xavier Cretzmeyer et al., Bresnahan and Tuttle’s Track and Field Athletics, 7th edition, Saint Louis, Mo.: C. V. Mosby Co., →OCLC, page 242:

     Those spearcasters using the front carry feel relieved of the responsibility of thinking about the javelin during the run.

Translations

sling-like device

spearman fighting at range

athlete who throws spears — see javelin thrower

Anagrams

• teraparsecs