This word, a derivitive of harpoen, appears in 20,000 Leagues

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1

This word, a derivitive of harpoen, appears in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. I can not find any translation, except a reference in a very old Dutch-English on-line e-book. Could someone please provide a translation and usage?
Thanks
Henri

2

I am not native Dutch, but I’ll give a stab at this…
(It would be better if you could give the full context — at least a complete sentence — in which the word is used.)

I believe ‘harpoende’ is just the past imperfect form of the verb ‘harpoenen,’ an outdated verb which has the exact same meaning as ‘harpoeneren.’ It probably fell out of use so as not to confuse the verb ‘harpoenen’ with the plural form of the noun harpoen, which is also ‘harpoenen.’

harpoenen : harpoende
harpoeneren : harpoeneerde
to harpoon (a whale): harpooned

Hij harpoende er dus met de anderen op los, dat het een lust was, en toen hij dacht het veilig te kunnen doen, sprong hij op den rug van een der dieren om hem verder af te maken.
— Drie Jongens by Suze Andriessen (1888)

So he, along with the others, harpooned wildly and with great abandon, and when he thought it was safe to do so, he jumped on the back of one of the animals to finish him off.

3

Thanks for the explanation.
This answers my question very well.
Regards