This is series of posts on interesting and unusual words and phrases.
The first set of words are adjectives that describe a shape and are often used in botany, mineralogy, and describing artistic forms.
The word for today is hastiform: shaped like an arrow head, from the Latin, hasta meanding “spear.”
The Sporting Review, 1855.
The bows of these hunters were by no means formidable in size, the same scarcely exceeding two feet in length, being constructed in the form of two crescents, intra-connected by a straight band. The constituent elements of these instruments of the chase were composed of the wood of the bamboo, and the tough, unyielding horn of the wild buffalo. To the extremities of the bows the strings were attached by means of grooves or notches calculated to receive them; and there is more than an ordinary share of strength required to string these bows. The latter occupy a very small space of room when drawn to their
utmost tension, and will dismiss an arrow with so great a force, that they will do inevitable execution, if directed at a living object, at a distance of one hundred yards.
The arrows are made from the common reed (Arundo fluviatilis), being about two feet and a half in length, surmounted at one extremity by sharp hastiform blades, which are fluted or grooved, and the subtle poison is carefully introduced into these cavities. These men, upon the whole, form a very striking contrast when compared with our English sportsmen, whose field services are very far removed from oriental scenery.
Steward Archives 