The present participle of assagai; striking or attacking with an assegai spear.
From 'assegai' + '-ing' (present participle suffix). This gerund form emerged in English colonial literature and military accounts when describing conflicts with indigenous African groups using traditional weapons.
This word appears mainly in 19th-century adventure novels and military dispatches, making it a linguistic fossil that captures a specific historical moment when European writers were describing African warfare to English audiences back home.
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