Also 1, 3 sperescæft, 4–5 spereschaft(e, 5 spereshafte, speyre-chaft. [f. SPEAR sb.1 Cf. OHG. sperascaft (MHG. sperschaft, G. speerschaft), MSw. spärsskapt.] The long shaft or handle to which the spear-head is fixed. Also transf. (quot. 1841).
c. 900. Wærferth, trans. Gregory’s Dial., 14. Þær hi ealle ongunnon heora hors mid heora sperescæftum þerscan.
c. 1205. Lay., 14752. He nom ænne spere-scæft Þe wes long & swiþe stærc.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Chron. xx. 5. Whos spere schaft was as the beme of websters.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. xxiv. Locusta … haþ longe legges, as a spere schafte.
c. 1420. Contin. Brut, 337. William Walworth … slow Iack Straw, and anon ryȝt þere dede smyȝt of his hed, and sette it vp apon a spere-schafte.
1483. Wardr. Acc., in Antiq. Rep. (1807), I. 49. viij spereshaftes with their chapitulls.
a. 1700. Ken, Edmund, Poet. Wks. 1721, II. 26. Fit barbed Heads for their Spear-shafts to make.
1841. H. Miller, O. R. Sandst., vii. 119. They form a continuous convex stratum in the sandstone spear-shaft.
1887. Morris, Odyssey, X. 170. As I steadied myself with my spear-shaft.
