Blowdarts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Small slender missiles propelled through a hollow tube by a puff of breath ; to launch such missiles by blowing through a blowgun
2. Little pointed darts sent flying through a narrow pipe with a forceful exhale ; to propel these projectiles by puffing air through a tube
3. Tiny arrows fired from a hollow tube using human breath ; to shoot these darts by blowing air through a blowgun

Etymology: A blowdart is a dart propelled by a puff of breath through a hollow tube, a weapon used by peoples of Southeast Asia and South America. The name is a plain compound: "blow" and "dart," the two parts doing exactly what they say. The "blow" half descends from Old English "blāwan," which goes back through Proto-Germanic to an Indo-European root for swelling or puffing, the same idea behind the English verb's breath sense. The "dart" half has a longer detour. It traces to Proto-Germanic "darōþuz," a word for a spear or javelin, which passed into Frankish and then Medieval Latin as "dardus." Old French took it up as "dart," and Middle English borrowed that form, so the thrown weapon and the blown one share a spear-like ancestor.