Definition
An ategar is a lance or javelin. The term appears in historical English legal texts derived from the Anglo-Saxon, where it designated a throwing weapon of the spear or javelin type. It is encountered almost exclusively in archaic legal and documentary contexts — particularly in records concerning military service obligations, feudal tenure, and the equipment owed by a tenant or warrior as part of his martial duties.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers are most likely to encounter "ategar" in Anglo-Saxon legal records, early medieval English charters, and feudal tenure documents that specify the arms a tenant was obligated to furnish or bear. The term belongs to a cluster of archaic weapon-related vocabulary that appears in sources describing fyrd service (the Anglo-Saxon military levy) or the equipment conditions attached to land grants.
Because the word is deeply obsolete and highly specific, modern legal indices and finding aids will not list it. Researchers working in pre-Conquest and early post-Conquest English records should be aware that weapon terminology in these documents is often drawn directly from Anglo-Saxon and will require specialist glossaries beyond standard legal dictionaries. Burrill is one of the few American legal dictionary sources to preserve this term, and its appearance there reflects the nineteenth-century project of documenting the Anglo-Saxon roots of English common law rather than any practical legal usage of Burrill's era.
If the term appears in a document under review, its presence is a reliable indicator that the source is archaic — likely pre-thirteenth century — or is a later transcription or commentary on such a source. Context involving land tenure, military service, or lists of weapons and equipment will be the typical setting.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole coverage in the Law Mind corpus. Burrill traces the word to the Anglo-Saxon components ateon (to throw) and gar (a weapon), yielding a compound meaning of "thrown weapon" — consistent with a lance or javelin rather than a thrusting spear. This etymology is linguistically plausible and aligns with Anglo-Saxon compound-word formation patterns.
No additional legal dictionary coverage exists in the corpus for this term, which reflects its extreme archaism. Burrill's entry is minimal — essentially a gloss — and provides no legal context, procedural significance, or case reference. Researchers should not expect to find the term in Bouvier, Black, or other standard dictionaries without independent verification.