the.com/harpoon
A spear that learned commitment issues, refusing to let go once it bites.
means A harpoon is a barbed spear, usually attached to a rope, thrown or fired to strike and hold large sea creatures like whales or big fish.
from From the Dutch 'harpoen' and French 'harpon,' which trace back to the Latin 'harpe,' a curved sickle or hook, and ultimately to the Greek 'harpē' for the same — a word with the sense of grabbing and clawing baked in (a cousin of 'harpy,' those snatching winged creatures of myth). So a harpoon is, at root, a thing with a hook that takes hold and won't let go — the name itself was already committed.
- toggle tip
- Barbed head rotates sideways inside flesh to anchor
- ancient kit
- Carved bone harpoons date back 90,000 years
- rope tax
- Whalers were dragged for miles on Nantucket sleighrides
- explosive upgrade
- Modern versions pack grenade tips that detonate inside
- missile cousin
- A naval anti-ship cruise missile shares the name
moby dick — the white whale harpooned by captain ahab in herman melville's 1851 novel
whaling industry — commercial hunts using harpoons peaked in the 19th century, killing thousands of whales annually
project harpoon — twitter campaign launched in 2014 to harass and report feminist accounts