spar

spar¹ pole, mast, boom

Etymology

The pole is inherited from Middle English sparre (“rafter, beam”),^[2][3][4] a word of Continental Germanic origin.^[5] Etymonline takes it as borrowed from, or cognate with, Middle Dutch sparre or sparre,^[3] and the MED also points to Old English forms found only in place names and to Old Norse sparri and sperra.^[2] The Shorter Oxford and Hoad give it as either the Old Norse word, a shortening of Old French esparre (now épar), or the Germanic source of that French word;^[6][7] the Oxford Dictionary of English likewise gives a shortening of the Old French word or the Old Norse one,^[8] and Collins gives the Old Norse word alone.^[9] Etymonline notes that the Germanic word was borrowed into Old French as esparre, which might be the direct source.^[3] Its cognates are Old Saxon sparro (“rafter”), Old High German sparro, modern German Sparren (“rafter”) and Dutch spar, from Proto-Germanic *sparrô (“stake, beam”),^{[4][1][10][11]} which Kroonen glosses "bar, beam, rafter".^[12] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster relate it to spear,^[4][13] and Etymonline derives it from Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“spear, pole”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the common rafters of a roof: about 1340, in the Nominale.^[5] Barnhart dates sparr, rafter, beam, stout pole, to before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi,^[4] Etymonline dates the rafter sense to the early 14th century,^[3] and Hoad to the 13th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From a rafter the word widened to any pole or length of timber of moderate thickness (1388),^[5][3] and Chaucer used sparre for a wooden beam.^[14][15] In the 16th and 17th centuries a spar was also a bar for fastening a door or gate,^[5] a use that survived in northern and western dialects as a wooden bolt or heavy oak bar.^[16] At sea it became the general term for masts, yards, booms and gaffs: the OED and Barnhart record it in 1640,^[5][4] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1630s,^[3] and Barnhart finds it earlier in the compound cant spar (1611), perhaps in spar deck (1570).^[4] In aeronautics, from 1866, a spar is one of the main members running along a wing and carrying the ribs,^[5][9] and in the oil industry, from 1973, a floating installation above an offshore well-head.^[5] The verb, to furnish with spars, is recorded from 1657–58.^[5][4] A related verb spar, to bar or bolt a door, recorded from about 1175 in the Ormulum, came from sperren, formed on the same Germanic stem; it is now archaic.^[5][6][13]

Timeline

• c. 1340 – a common rafter of a roof.^[5] Barnhart dates the word to before 1325.^[4]
• 1388 – a pole or piece of timber of some length.^[5][3]
• 1596 – a bar for fastening a door or gate (obsolete by 1668).^[5]
• 1640 – nautical, a mast, yard, boom or gaff.^[5][4]
• 1657 – verb, to furnish or close in with spars.^[5][4]
• 1843 – US, to help a vessel over a shallow bar with spars and tackle.^[5]
• 1866 – aeronautics, a main member of an aircraft wing.^[5]
• 1973 – oil industry, a floating installation above an offshore well.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stout pole used as a mast, boom, gaff or yard to support a ship's rigging.^[9][13][5]
2. One of the main longitudinal members of an aircraft wing, carrying the ribs.^[9][13][5]
3. A pole or moderately thick piece of timber.^[13][5]
4. (archaic or dialect) A rafter.^[13][5]

Verb

1. To furnish a ship or a structure with spars.^[5][6]
2. (US) To move a stranded vessel, or help it over a shallow bar, with spars and tackle.^[13][5][6]

Word family

• spar deck
• spar buoy
• sparlike
• undersparred

spar² box, dispute

Etymology

The verb meaning to box is inherited from Middle English sparren (“to go quickly, rush, dart”),^[2][3] of uncertain or obscure origin.^[3][5][2] Hoad, the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it as inherited from Old English sperran (“to strike out”), also spyrran, which corresponds to Old Norse sperrask (“to kick out”) and is itself of unknown origin;^{[7][6][8][17]} Etymonline and the MED also point to the Old English verb.^[3][2] Barnhart suggests instead a borrowing from Middle French esparer (“to kick”), from Italian sparare (“to fling”), formed from the intensive s- (from Latin ex-) and parō (“to ward off”), the source of parry;^[4][18] Etymonline objects that the French word is late (17th century).^[3] Merriam-Webster takes the verb as probably an alteration of spur, and Collins as perhaps from it,^[13][9] a link Etymonline thinks unlikely.^[3] Weekley wondered whether it came from an obsolete spar, a long-handled battle-axe.^[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

To go quickly, rush, dart: about 1400, in Pearl (probably composed about 1380).^[2][5] Barnhart finds a form sperden, to go quickly, rush, probably before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder, and the sense "to strike with spurs" in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (about 1390).^[4]

Semantic evolution

The old sense of darting, springing or thrusting rapidly died out by 1540.^[5][6] From 1570 the verb was used of cocks striking with their feet or spurs,^[5][4] and later (1686) of exercising a gamecock in this way.^[5] Its use for boxing, making the motions of attack and defence with the fists, is first recorded in Johnson's Dictionary (1755).^[5][4][3] The figurative sense "to dispute, bandy words" appears in 1698,^[5][4] though Etymonline doubts that it is certainly the same word.^[3] The noun followed the verb: a thrust (about 1400 to 1540), a boxing match (1814), a cock-fight (1850) and a wordy dispute (1836, in Dickens).^[5][4][6] In West Indian and later British Black English slang a spar is a friend (from 1973),^[20][9] probably from sparring partner.^[1][20]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – to go quickly, rush, dart; to strike or thrust rapidly (obsolete by 1540).^[2][5]
• 1570 – of cocks, to strike with the feet or spurs.^[5][4]
• 1698 – to dispute, bandy words.^[5][4]
• 1755 – to box; to make the motions of attack and defence with the fists.^[5][4][3]
• 1814 – noun, a boxing match or a sparring movement.^[5][13][4]
• 1836 – noun, a wordy dispute.^[5]
• 1973 – slang, a friend.^[20]

Meanings

Verb

1. To box or fight with light blows, especially for practice, as in boxing or the martial arts: The champion sparred with a younger fighter every morning.^[9][13][5]
2. To argue or dispute, especially in a lively way between well-matched opponents.^[9][13][5]
3. Of a gamecock, to fight with the feet or spurs.^[9][13][5]
4. (obsolete, 1400–1540) To dart or spring; to strike or thrust rapidly.^[5][6]

Noun

1. A boxing movement, or a practice or exhibition bout that is not aggressive.^[9][13][5]
2. An argument or wrangle.^[9][13][5]
3. (informal) A close friend.^[9][20]

Word family

• sparrer
• sparring
• sparring partner

spar³ crystalline mineral

Etymology

The word for the mineral is borrowed from Low German Spar,^[4][3][13] from Middle Low German spar, also sper;^[4][3] the OED, the Shorter Oxford and Hoad take it directly from the Middle Low German word,^[5][6][7] which also occurs in compounds such as sparglas and Middle High German sparchalch.^[5] It is related to Old English spærstān (“gypsum, chalk”) and spæren (“of gypsum or plaster”).^{[5][4][7][17]} Dictionary.com and Wiktionary also allow a back-formation from sparstone.^[21][1] Klein explains the modern use of the word as due to confusion with German Spat, the source of spathic.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A general name for crystalline minerals that are more or less lustrous and split easily: 1581.^[5][4][13] Etymonline dates it to the 1580s and Dictionary.com to 1575–85.^[3][21]

Semantic evolution

The word kept its general sense, and many kinds are named by compounds such as feldspar, fluorspar and Iceland spar.^[5][6][13] Johnson (1755) defined it as marcasite.^[22] From the 1850s a spar could also be a fragment of the mineral or an ornament made of it.^[5] In northern English and Cornish dialect the word meant the coat of an ore, quartz, or any rock with a crystalline look; coal occurring in bright particles was coal spar.^[16]

Timeline

• 1581 – a crystalline, easily split mineral.^[5][4][13]
• 1668 – plural, different varieties of spar.^[5]
• 1851 – an ornament made of spar.^[5]
• 1855 – a fragment or particle of spar.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of various light-coloured, more or less lustrous non-metallic minerals that split easily, such as calcite or feldspar, especially when found as gangue in a vein of ore.^[9][13][5]

Word family

• feldspar
• fluorspar
• calcspar
• heavy spar
• Greenland spar