Although I agree in general terms with the definitions of ‘pica’ and ‘chuzo’, I don’t agree in restricting the meaning of ‘lanza’ to a weapon not used to throw. I think the word ‘lance’ comes from the french languaje and it can have other meaning than the seemingly apparent word in spanish. At first, I feel some restraint in answering to this point, as the word ‘lanza’ in spanish has the same meaning than the word ‘spear’, but including also the meaning on ‘lance’. In other words, Fernando is right in the sense that we don’t have an exclusive generic word to designate only the very long shafted weapon used by cavalry mounted soldiers or knights, but we do have an equivalent word for ‘spear’, and this is the word ‘venablo’, that is, a shorter thrusting and throwing weapon. The word ‘lanza’ in spanish also designates a thrusting and throwing weapon, and its main difference with the venablo seems to be the lenght of the shaft, even though I have never found the respective measures to have a clear understanding of this limits.
According with the Royal Dictionary of the Academy of Spanish Language, the higher authority in this matter, the word ‘lanza’ is not defined in relation with being a thrusting or a throwing weapon, but by its general physical characteristics. I also checked the Salvat Encyclopedia in 12 volumes, because as I always understood, the lanza was indistinctly a thrusting or/and a throwing weapon, and I wanted to be quite sure. I also did not find this differentiating characteristic. Furthermore, the spanish literature and history is full of references in this same direction. Not to be far apart of our subject, we find references to another type of weapon taken by the spaniards from Africa: the lanza gineta or lanza jineta. You can find some references here:
http://xenophongroup.com/EMW/article001.htm
I think it is a shorter shafted weapon compared to the used previously by the cavalry iberic soldier, more longer and less appropriated to the more lightning attacks ‘a la gineta’, that is, to the style of cavalry fight introduced by the berbers into what now is Spain. This older versions, for reasons related with the length of the shaft, were not apt as a throwing weapons. There is even a treatise about fighting ‘a la gineta’, written by a knigh who was member of one of the military spanish cavalry orders, which I previously noted in another thread related with the jineta sword.
I also don’t agree that the word ‘jabalina’ would be more appropriated to designate a war weapon used to throw. This last weapon was used mainly as a hunting weapon and latter as a sport weapon, like the used on the olympic games (javelin). Sometimes is used meaning the weapon the romans called ‘pilium’. With this meaning, jabalina could designate a war weapon, but with some special characteristics, mainly a long narrow point and a short shaft. But there are also a bit longer weapons with wide points, sometimes lanceolated, used as thrusting or/and throwing weapon. It must be pointed out that the word ‘lanza’ in spanish also means ‘throw’, and to throw a stone would be said ‘lanzar una piedra’, thus the word used to name this weapon. In spanish we also have another word taken form the berbers: ‘azagaya’, which is used to designate a short war weapon, equivalent to the jabalina.
The weapon with long shaft ended in a pike and with an axe at its side, specially in the form of a half moon, is called in spanish ‘alabarda’, a halberd.
You can consult online the Royal Dictionary of the Academy of Spanish Language, and another dicionaries in spanish, and translate them using also online instruments, as Babel Fish and the one provided by Google:
http://www.rae.es/rae.html
Regards
Gonzalo