the.com/spear
Humanity's first idea that traveled at a distance — pointed persuasion, perfected.
means A long weapon or tool with a sharp pointed head, designed to be thrust or thrown to pierce a target; also, to pierce or strike something with such an object.
from From Old English 'spere,' a word with deep Germanic roots — kin to Dutch 'speer' and German 'Speer.' Beyond that it likely traces to a Proto-Indo-European source meaning 'spar' or 'pole,' the same family that gives us the 'spar' of a ship's rigging — a reminder that before it was a weapon, it was simply a good long shaft of wood. The verb sense, to spear something, followed naturally from the noun.
- older than us
- Wooden spears predate Homo sapiens by 300,000 years
- reach beats strength
- Two extra feet of pole rewrote every fight
- phalanx logic
- Greek pikes turned soldiers into a single bristling wall
- still here
- Fishing, hunting, and Olympic javelin keep it alive
gungnir — odin's spear in norse mythology, featured in the prose edda and poetic edda texts
holy lance — the spear that pierced jesus christ at golgotha, venerated since the 4th century in vatican
trident — poseidon's three-pronged spear in greek mythology, symbol of the sea god