The spear or lance together with the sword, the seax and the shield was the main equipment of the Germanic warriors during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages.
The pre-migration term reported by Tacitus is framea, who identifies it as "hasta"; The native term for "javelin, spear" was Old High German gêr, Old English gâr, Old Norse geirr, apparently from proto-Germanic *gaizaz. The names Genseric, Radagaisus indicate Gothic gaisu besides gairu.
Latin gaesum, gaesus, Greek γαῖσον was the term for the lance of the Gauls. The Avestan language has gaêçu "lance bearer" as a likely cognate. The Celtic word is found e.g. in the name of the Gaesatae. Old Irish has gae "spear". Proto-Germanic *gaizaz would derive from proto-Indo-European language *ghaisos, although loan from Celtic has also been considered, in which case the PIE form would be *gaisos. The Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch has *g'haisos (with a palatal velar aspirate), discounting the Avestan form in favour of (tentatively) comparing Sanskrit hḗṣas- "projectile".
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or bronze. The most common design for hunting or combat spears since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, lozenge, or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature barbs or serrated edges.
The word spear comes from the Old English spere, from the Proto-Germanic speri, from a Proto-Indo-European root *sper- "spear, pole". Spears can be divided into two broad categories: those designed for thrusting in melee combat and those designed for throwing (usually referred to as javelins).
The spear has been used throughout human history both as a hunting and fishing tool and as a weapon. Along with the axe, knife, and club it is one of the earliest and most important tools developed by early humans. As a weapon, it may be wielded with either one hand or two. It was used in virtually every conflict up until the modern era, where even then it continues on in the form of the bayonet, and is probably the most commonly used weapon in history.
Spear is the name of a supervillain in Marvel Comics.
Spear first appeared in Power Man #28 and was created by Don McGregor and Frank Robbins. His full name was revealed in Fear Itself: Fellowship of Fear #1.
Jasper Daniels is the brother of a convict named Jack Daniels who was dying of an inoperable brain tumor. When Jack couldn't survive the early "Power Man" experiments, Spear blamed Dr. Noah Burstein and began developing identities that would serve him in his quest to avenge his brother.
Spear watched Noah Burnstein from the shadows. Noah noticed him, but did not say anything to Power Man.
Spear fired on Dr. Burnstein while he was walking with Luke Cage and Claire Foster so that he can fight with Luke Cage. Despite Luke Cage's best efforts, Spear managed to do a near fatal shot on Dr. Burnstein and escaped. Shortly after the attack, Spear shot a hollow shaft with a message to Dr. Burnstein confirming his attack on him.
Spear later tracked Luke Cage's movements and was on hand to rescue his brother Mangler after an ill-advised attack on Luke Cage. While Mangler distracted Luke Cage, Spear sent another message to Dr. Burnstein and once again decided to let him live. He left a message for him to meet him at the East River pier. When Dr. Burnstein did so, he was speared by Spear in front of Luke Cage's eyes. Two young adults witnessed Spear escaping the pier. Spear then attempted to rescue Mangler from police custody which was thwarted by Luke Cage. Not wanting to lose another son, Spear's mother tipped off Luke Cage and Quentin Chase as to his whereabouts. Luke Cage and Quentin Chase confronted Spear at his tenement apartment. He engaged Luke Cage in a running battle which took to the top of an outbound bus which crashed into the Hudson River. After knocking out Spear, Luke Cage handed him over to the police.
Spear is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
Ger or GER may refer to:
Àger is a municipality in the comarca of the Noguera in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated in the north-west of the comarca, and the territory of the municipality stretches between the Noguera Ribagorçana and Noguera Pallaresa rivers. The Terradets reservoir on the Noguera Pallaresa is situated within the municipality. The village is linked to Balaguer and Tremp by the L-904 road.
Jera (also Jeran, Jeraz) is the conventional name of the j-rune ᛃ of the Elder Futhark, from a reconstructed Common Germanic stem *jēra- meaning "harvest, (good) year".
The corresponding letter of the Gothic alphabet is Gothic 𐌾, named jēr, also expressing /j/. The Elder Futhark rune gives rise to the Anglo-Frisian runes ᛄ /j/, named gēr /jeːr/, and ᛡ /io/, named ior, and to the Younger Futhark ár rune ᛅ, which stood for /a/ as the /j/ phoneme had disappeared in Old Norse.
The reconstructed Common Germanic name *jēran is the origin of English year (Old English ġēar). In contrast to the modern word, it had a meaning of "season" and specifically "harvest", and hence "plenty, prosperity".
The Germanic word is cognate with Greek ὧρος (horos) "year" (and ὥρα (hora) "season", whence hour), Slavonic jarŭ "spring" and with the -or- in Latin hornus "of this year" (from *ho-jōrinus), as well as Avestan yāre "year", all from a PIE stem *yer-o-.
The derivation of the rune is uncertain; some scholars see it as a modification of Latin G ("C (ᚲ) with stroke") while others consider it a Germanic innovation. The letter in any case appears from the very earliest runic inscriptions, figuring on the Vimose comb inscription, harja.