Middle English Dictionary Entry
onager n.
Entry Info
| Forms | onager n. |
| Etymology | L |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
1.
(a) The wild ass (Equus onager or Equus hemionus), onager; (b) a military catapult, a kind of siege engine.
Associated quotations
a
- (a1398) *Trev.Barth.(Add 27944)176a/b : Þees meyne bilden noon houses, but goon aboute in large wildernesse as wilde men and women in tentys..And þerefore hismael was yclepede Onager, a wylde Asse, as þe glose seiþ.
- (a1398) *Trev.Barth.(Add 27944)294a/a : Onager is a wilde asse..and suche asses ben grete & wilde in affrica and vntamed and goþ aboute in desert place.
- a1425(c1340) Rolle Psalter (LdMisc 286)103.12 : Potabunt omnes bestie agri; expectabunt onagri in siti sua: Shal drynke all bestis of the felde, abyde schal onagirs in thair thirst..onagirs are wilde assis.
b
- (a1460) Vegetius(2) (Pmb-C 243)2541 : Sumtyme ayen this werk, the bowe of brake, Carribalistys and Arcubalistis, Onagris [L onagri; vr. onagris] and fustibulis wer take.
- (a1460) Vegetius(2) (Pmb-C 243)2952 : Thonagir [L Onager] was an huge & myghti bowe, Strynged with nerf, therwith the stonys grete, In maner of a thonderynge were throwe.