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spear

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /spɪə̯(ɹ)/[1]
  • US: /spɪɹ/[1]

spear1 weapon

Etymology

The weapon is inherited from Middle English spere,[2][3] inherited from Old English spere (“spear, lance, javelin”),[4][5][2][6] inherited from Proto-Germanic *speru.[7][8] Etymonline writes the Proto-Germanic form as *sperō, and Barnhart as *speri.[4][2] It is cognate with Old Frisian spere and spiri, Old Saxon sper, Middle Dutch spere, Dutch speer, Old High German sper, German Speer and the plural Old Norse spjǫr (“spears”).[5][2][4][7] Klein and Ayto connect it with spar, a pole or rafter, and with Old Norse sparri (“spar, rafter”),[3][9] and Holthausen with Old High German sparro (“rafter”).[10] Outside Germanic it is often compared with Latin sparus (“hunting spear”): Kroonen and Orel take the two as related, Klein and Barnhart as probably or possibly so, Barnhart tracing both to Proto-Indo-European *sper-,[7][8][3][2] while the OED doubts the connection.[5][11] The verb, to pierce with a spear, is formed from the noun.[4][5][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

A thrusting or throwing weapon with a long wooden shaft and a sharp head: Old English, before 800 according to Barnhart,[2] first in the Corpus Glossary in the OED.[5] Bosworth–Toller glosses it as a spear, lance, pike or javelin, rendering Latin lancea and hasta.[6]

Semantic evolution

From before 1250 the word was used without an article and in a collective sense, often paired with shield or sword, as in The Owl and the Nightingale;[5] from about 1275 it was used in Laȝamon's Brut, for a soldier carrying a spear, a sense now archaic.[5] A spear of peace was a blunt spear used in jousting (about 1400 to 1508), while between 1600 and 1710 to sell under the spear meant to sell by auction.[5] The compound spearhead, the point of a spear, is recorded from about 1400, and its sense of the leading part of an attack or undertaking only from 1929.[2] The spear side of a family is the male line, set against the distaff side.[12] Old English place names such as Sparsholt in Berkshire and Hampshire allude to woods where spear shafts were cut.[13] The spelling speare is recorded from 1524, and the modern spear from 1539.[2] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a long pointed weapon for thrusting or throwing, a lance, and is the first source the OED and Barnhart give for the verb,[14][5][2] although the Shorter Oxford dates the verb to late Middle English and Merriam-Webster to the 15th century.[11][12] Later senses of the verb include, in Australian slang, to dismiss from a job, with the noun the spear for dismissal,[5][15] in American slang to beg (1912),[5] and in North American ice hockey and football to jab an opponent illegally with the stick or ram him with the helmet (1963–64).[5] In Gloucestershire dialect a spear was a rapier or sword-stick, and in Sussex the sting of a bee.[16]

Timeline

  • before 800 – Old English spere, a spear.[2][5]
  • before 1250 – collective use, often with shield or sword.[5]
  • c. 1275 – a soldier armed with a spear.[5]
  • c. 1400 – spearhead, the head of a spear.[2]
  • 1524 – the spelling speare; 1539 spear.[2]
  • 1600 – to sell under the spear, to auction (obsolete by 1710).[5]
  • 1755 – verb, to pierce with a spear, in Johnson's Dictionary.[5][2]
  • 1823 – a spike of a cheval-de-frise.[5]
  • 1849 – a hunter who uses a spear, a pig-sticker.[5]
  • 1902 – verb, to dismiss from a job (slang).[15]
  • 1912 – the spear, dismissal, in Australian slang.[5]
  • 1929 – spearhead, the leading part of an attack.[2]
  • 1963 – to jab an opponent illegally with a hockey stick.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A weapon with a long shaft and a sharp pointed head, thrust or thrown in war or hunting.
  2. A sharp, often barbed, implement for catching fish.
  3. (archaic) A soldier armed with a spear; a spearman.
  4. Something shaped like a spear, such as a thin ray of light.

Verb

  1. To pierce or strike with a spear or something pointed: She speared an olive with a toothpick.
  2. (North American sports) To jab an opponent illegally with the end of a stick, or ram him with the helmet.
  3. (Australian slang) To dismiss from a job.

Adjective

  1. Of the male line of a family: the spear side.

Word family

  • spearer
  • spearlike
  • spearhead
  • spearmint
  • spearfish
  • spearfisherman
  • speargun
  • spearman

spear2 sprout, shoot

Etymology

The sprout is an irregular variant of spire,[5][11][2][4][17] perhaps influenced by the name of the weapon.[5][11][4][18][12] The verb, to sprout, is likewise a variant of the verb spire.[5][11][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The spire of a church or another building, or a pyramid: 1480, in William Worcester,[5] 1509 in Barnhart and about 1500 in Etymonline;[2][4] this sense was obsolete by 1753.[5]

Semantic evolution

From the spire the word passed to things that shoot up in the same shape: a blade or shoot of grass and the like (1623), the first shoot of a seed or grain (1647, in Herrick), and later a spike of hair (1852, in Uncle Tom's Cabin).[5][2][4] The edible shoot of asparagus or sprouting broccoli is recorded from 1833.[5] In southern English dialect spear meant reeds, especially for thatching (1794), and a stem of reed or osier (1844, in William Barnes).[5][12] The verb, to sprout or germinate, is recorded from 1570, in Tusser.[5][12][2]

Timeline

  • 1480 – the spire of a building (obsolete by 1753).[5]
  • 1570 – verb, of corn, to sprout.[5][12]
  • 1623 – a blade or shoot of grass.[5]
  • 1647 – the first shoot of a seed or grain.[5][2]
  • 1794 – reeds for thatching, in southern dialect.[5]
  • 1833 – a shoot of asparagus.[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A young blade, shoot or sprout of a plant, especially the edible shoot of asparagus or broccoli: a bundle of asparagus spears.
  2. (dialect) Reeds, especially as used for thatching.

Verb

  1. Of a plant, to sprout or shoot up in long blades.
  • spire
  • spar

Usage notes

The OED and the Shorter Oxford record further words spelled spear that have separate sources: an obsolete verb meaning to shut or bar, borrowed from Middle Low German speren;[5][11] a noun for a sapling or a pump-rod, a variant of another spire;[5][11][12] and a dialect noun for a thatching rod, a variant of spar.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b 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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  7. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ Smith, A. H. (1956), English Place-Name Elements, 2 vols. (English Place-Name Society 25–26), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  16. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  17. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  18. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House