Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Lajinaa

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Valley2city^‽ 05:34, 3 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Lajinaa

This has been in for over two years, but cites no source, and I can find no reliable one; it is probably a hoax.

There are lots of Ghits, but all the ones that say anything substantial use the same curious phrase about "Spaniard pirates" - either they are mirrors or (less likely) the article was copied from one of them. I have found nothing that could be considered a reliable source.
The word is not in the big Oxford English Dictionary, nor in the index to the Encyclopedia Britannica, nor in Collins' Spanish dictionary.
The text says "All through the history of the Lajinaa it was widely accepted and sometimes referred to as a pirate spear". A Google search on lajinaa "pirate spear" finds only obvious WP mirrors.
Nothing from searching forums like knifenetwork.com and knives.at
I found the word in one passage of Finnish and one of Dutch; in neither case could Google Translate translate it, but neither passage seemed to be anything to do with pirates.

The word does occur in one or two lists of knives, and this passage from a blog refers to a "a Lajinaa paring knife" along with real knives like Laguiole and Puukko; but a paring knife is a very different thing from a pirate spear.

The article was input in three stages: the first two paragraphs, including the image, by Piratehunter13 (talk · contribs) in Feb/Mar 2007. The image was removed by Orphanbot but replaced by Querthouse (talk · contribs) in June 2007. The last paragraph was added by Canhistor (talk · contribs) in Nov 2007. None of these has many other edits; in particular Canhistor's only other contribution is currently at AfD as a hoax (which is what led me to look at this).

Conclusion: there may be a kind of knife called lajinaa, but we have no reliably-sourced information about it; all the picturesque detail about "pirate spears" in the article is probably a hoax, and certainly fails WP:V. Delete. JohnCD (talk) 18:01, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I couldn't find any sources, but I'm inclined to be careful with this—it may be a hoax, but if so it's a plausible one. The item depicted looks like a knife blade that could be attached to a pole as a spear, or detached to use as a separate knife, like a forerunner of the bayonet, and there was a tradition of multipurpose naval dirks. The word "lajinaa" doesn't look Spanish, so check obvious mis-spellings (I've checked "lajinna" and "laginna" already). If anyone has a copy of ffoulkes' Arms and Armour, that would definitely be worth checking.—S Marshall ^Talk/_Cont 19:47, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Possible mis-spelling is a useful idea; I've tried "lagina" and "lajina" without finding anything. I also tried Googling pirate spear to see if that threw up a name, but the result doesn't suggest that "pirate spear" is particularly a recognised concept (certainly my mental image of a pirate is swinging a cutlass). JohnCD (talk) 09:27, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Delete. Possibly a hoax. It seems to have been copied far and wide. There are a couple of references in blogs, but these people may well have learned the term on Wikipedia. Pburka (talk) 19:53, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps we should get some experts in from WikiProjects like Military history or Ships (is there one on Weapons?). They're more likely to know where to find info about pirate weapons than the general layman is. - Mgm|^(talk) 22:55, 29 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Comment - I am having a hard time finding any sources that aren't Wikipedia mirrors, and as a consequence, I'm leaning towards a delete right now. I think it's important that we try to enlist the help of some experts on the subject and we don't close this discussion early. Note: I also tried searching for several different variants on the word "lajinaa", but still couldn't find anything. — LinguistAtLarge • Talk 00:02, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have asked at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history/Weaponry task force for advice. JohnCD (talk) 09:08, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of History-related deletion discussions. -- — LinguistAtLarge • Talk 00:03, 30 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Delete unless reliable sources can be found. Edward321 (talk)`
Delete as a probable (and rather successful) hoax. Given the combination of no reliable sources -- no clearly independent sources for that matter -- and the involvement of single-use accounts that are linked to other hoaxes and sockfests... smells like mischief. In any case, the article can be deleted on the basis that it contains no veriable content at all. --Shunpiker (talk) 06:13, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Given the history of the article's original creator, a hoax seems likely. But, even if it isn't, it's unverifiable by any outside source, so I think it has to be deleted. Anaxial (talk) 13:43, 31 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Delete unless WP:RS are added. I have no specialist expertise here, but the basis of the story is highly improbable. The pirates infesting the Caribbean and surrounding areas were (as I understand it) largely renegade Europeans, who would have had access to muskets and pistols, and so would hardly be likely to use spears. Peterkingiron (talk) 21:56, 1 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.