origins of the assegai?

[fernando]

Hi Jim, my friend .

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... It has been an interesting aspect of arms study to realize how terms describing botanical components of weapons, in this case the shafts, often lead to the term a weapon becomes known by...

Digging deep into the (portuguese) dictionaries we can find the botanic term Zaga, of obscure origin, which is a sort of palm tree, from which azagaias (assegais) are made.
I would never dream such term exists .
Fernando