spacer

Etymology

It is formed from English space + -er.^[2][3][4] In most senses the base is the verb; for the 20th-century senses "space traveller" and "spacecraft" it is the noun, in the sense of outer space.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A space between two fixed points in the heavens: 1697, in Thomas Creech's translation of Manilius, a rare sense that soon died out.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The modern use for a thing that makes or keeps a space began in the mid-19th century: the OED's first record of an object or device used to make a space or interval is from 1857.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the typewriter key and mechanism for spacing words to 1882 and notes an earlier telegraphy sense.^[3] Later specialized senses include a perforated bead holding apart the strands of a necklace in archaeology (1907), a stretch of DNA between two coding regions in biology (1963) and a chamber fitted between an aerosol inhaler and the mouth in medicine (1979).^[2] With the rise of science fiction the word was formed again from the noun space: a space traveller from 1940, in Isaac Asimov, and a spacecraft from 1942.^[2][4] In slang, American underworld use had spacer for a convicted criminal in 1920, and in Irish English since the 1980s it has meant a streetwise young person and then a crazy person, from spaced out.^[5]

Timeline

• 1697 – a space between two points in the heavens (obsolete).^[2]
• 1857 – an object or device used to make a space or interval.^[2]
• 1882 – the typewriter key and mechanism for spacing words.^[3]
• 1888 – a person or thing that spaces in a certain way.^[2]
• 1907 – in archaeology, a bead that holds the strands of a necklace apart.^[2]
• 1940 – a space traveller.^[2]
• 1942 – a spacecraft.^[2][4]
• 1963 – in biology, a non-coding stretch of DNA between two coding regions.^[2]
• 1979 – a chamber placed between an aerosol inhaler and the mouth.^[2]
• 1987 – in Irish slang, a streetwise young person.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of material used to keep two parts a set distance apart: Plastic spacers kept the tiles evenly apart.^[6][7][2]
2. A device or mechanism that makes or controls spacing, such as the key on a typewriter that puts a space between words.^[2][3]
3. (computing) A space character keyed into text or data.^[6]
4. (medicine) A tube or chamber fitted between an aerosol inhaler and the mouth so that the dose is taken in more effectively.^[2]
5. (biology) A stretch of DNA between two coding regions that does not form part of the final transcript.^[2]
6. (archaeology) A flat, perforated bead that holds apart the strands of a necklace.^[2]
7. A person who travels in outer space; a spaceman.^[6][2]
8. A spacecraft.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
6. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster