spider

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈspaɪ̯də/, /ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English spithre, spyder, inherited from Old English spīþra, earlier *spinþra,^[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *spinþrō, literally “spinner”, from the source of spin,^[2][3][5] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *(s)pen- (“to draw, stretch, spin”).^[3] The connection is clearer in Dutch spin and German Spinne.^[3][6] The loss of -n- before -th- is regular in Old English, as in goose and tooth, and -th- later became -d-, as in murder.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

1340, as spithre, in the Ayenbite of Inwyt;^[2][7] spyder is from 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that it was not the common word in Old or Middle English, which used loppe (Chaucer's usual word), attercop, poison-head, and araine, from Latin aranea.^[3] It is used as a term of abuse for persons from 1568.^[7] A frying pan with legs is a spider from 1807, a spider-crab from 1853 and a fishing fly from 1857.^[7] In literature the spider is a figure of cunning, skill and industry as well as of venomous predation.^[3] Spidery is from 1825, in Coleridge's letters.^[2]

Timeline

• 1340 – spithre.^[2][7]
• 1440 – spyder.^[2]
• 1568 – a term of abuse.^[7]
• 1807 – a long-handled frying pan.^[7]
• 1825 – spidery.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An arachnid with eight legs and a body in two parts, many kinds of which spin webs to catch insects.
2. Something resembling a spider, such as a frying pan with legs or a rest for a snooker cue.
3. (computing) A program that searches the World Wide Web; a crawler.

Word family

• spiderish
• spiderlike
• spiderless

Related words

• spin
• spindle
• spinster
• arachnid
• cobweb

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press