spaca

Forms

spāca m (weak; genitive singular spācan, nominative plural spācan)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *spaikā, from Proto-Germanic *spaikō (“spoke”).^[1][2] Orel lists the cognates Old Saxon spēka and Old High German speihha, and relates the noun to *spīkaz (“nail, spike”).^[3] Holthausen likewise compares the Old Saxon and Old High German words and connects it with spīcing (“large nail”) and spīr (“stalk, spire”).^[4]

Köbler takes it to a root Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“pointed”) (Pokorny 981).^[2] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *speyg-, an extension of the same root.^[1][1] Etymonline calls the word of uncertain origin and connects it only tentatively with a root for a sharp point.^[5] Proto-Germanic /ai/ appears as ⟨ā⟩, against the ⟨ē⟩ of Old Saxon and the ⟨ei⟩ of Old High German.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Old English Boethius, in the Cotton Otho manuscript of the mid-tenth century, in Boethius's figure of the wheel: the best men go nearest to God as the hub goes nearest the axle, the middling ones swa swa ða spacan “like the spokes”, since ælces spacan bið oðer ende fæst on ðære nafe, oðer on þære felge “each spoke has one end fixed in the hub, the other in the rim”.^[6][7][8]

Semantic evolution

Apart from the Boethius passage the word is known from glosses, where it renders Latin radii “spokes”; once it renders radioli, apparently a part of the body (compare ribbspācan).^[8] Holthausen notes it in place-names too.^[4] It lived on as Middle English spoke, spake, now English spoke, later also used of the rungs of ladders.^[5]

Timeline

• s. x med. – swa swa ða spacan “like the spokes” in the Old English Boethius.^[6][7]
• Middle English – spoke, spake, continuing the Old English word.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. a spoke of a wheel.^[8][9][2]
2. (glosses) a part of the body, rendering Latin radioli.^[8]

Descendants

• Middle English spoke (→ English spoke; Middle Scots spak; Middle Scots spake)^[1]

Related words

• spīcing
• spīr

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. spāca
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 361
4. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 307
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 296
7. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
8. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 898
9. ^ Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 180