English

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

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

Noun

spearcaster ‎(plural spearcasters)

1. A sling-like device used to impart greater impetus to a thrown spear.
   • 1897, John Clark Ridpath, 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, volume VIII, Cincinnati, Oh.: The Jones Brothers Publishing Company, OCLC 7122367, book xxx, chapter cxci, 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 771294575, 242/1:

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

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