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spire

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Etymology and origin of the English word spire

Pronunciation

  • /spaɪə/, /ˈspaɪ.ə/[1]

spire1 steeple, shoot

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1000 before 1000, Leechdoms
Inherited from
Old English spir via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *spīrō

Etymology

The word for a stalk, shoot and later a steeple is inherited from Middle English spire, also spir,[2][3] inherited from Old English spīr (“a stalk, shoot, blade of grass”),[4][5][6][7][8][9] from Proto-Germanic *spīrō,[1] which Barnhart and Etymonline reconstruct as *spīraz.[5][4] It is cognate with Old Norse spíra (“a stalk, slender tree”), Dutch spier (“shoot, blade of grass”), Middle Low German spīr (“a small point or top”), Middle High German spīr, now German Spier, Swedish spira and Danish spire.[4][5][7][3] Barnhart traces it to Proto-Indo-European *spei- (“sharp point”),[5][4] and Merriam-Webster relates it to Latin spīna (“thorn”), the source of spine.[2] Klein relates it to spit, a pointed bar, and Weekley to spar.[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stalk or stem of a plant, especially a tall slender one: in Old English, in the Leechdoms, where hreódes spír is the stalk of a reed.[7][6] Barnhart dates the Old English word to before 1000, and the Middle English one to about 1250, in The Owl and the Nightingale.[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word was used of reeds (before 1250), of a young shoot or sprout (about 1374, in Chaucer's Troilus), of a tongue of flame (about 1450) and of the awn of grain (1530).[7] The architectural sense came in the late 16th century: Barnhart finds a tall pointed summit or peak in 1586 and the tapering top of a tower or steeple in 1596,[5] and Etymonline puts the steeple sense in the 1590s.[4] Etymonline notes that a similar sense is found in Middle Low German from the late 14th century and in the Scandinavian cognates, but seems to be missing in Middle English;[4] Weekley likewise compares Swedish and Danish.[10] The tapering top of a tree is recorded from 1657 and a flower spike from 1850, in Tennyson.[7] The verb, to sprout, is first recorded before 1325,[5][7] and in 1591, in Spenser, it is first found meaning to rise up like a spire.[5][7] The stalk senses survive in regional English: spire is reeds or sedge in southern and south-western England,[7] and a young tree or sapling in Scotland.[11]

Timeline

  • before 1000 – a stalk or stem of a plant.[5][7]
  • before 1250 – reeds, reed-like plants.[7][5]
  • before 1325 – verb, to sprout, germinate.[5][7]
  • c. 1374 – a young shoot or sprout.[7]
  • c. 1450 – a tongue of flame.[7]
  • 1586 – a tall pointed summit or peak.[5]
  • 1591 – verb, to rise up like a spire.[5][7]
  • 1596 – the tapering top of a tower or steeple.[5] Etymonline dates it to the 1590s.[4]
  • 1657 – the tapering top of a tree.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tall structure tapering to a point on top of a tower or roof, especially the upper part of a steeple: The village church has a slender stone spire.[12][2][8]
  2. The tapering top of something, such as a tree or a mountain; a pinnacle or summit.[12][2][8]
  3. A slender tapering shoot or stalk, such as a blade of grass.[12][2][8]

Verb

  1. To rise or taper upwards like a spire.[12][2][7]
  2. (rare) Of a seed, to sprout.[2][7][13]

Word family

  • spireless
  • spirelet
  • acrospire
  • spiry

spire2 coil, spiral

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1545
Borrowed from
French spire
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek σπεῖρα
Etymology tree of spire2
inherited borrowed derived
Ancient Greek σπεῖρα
Latin spira
English spire
The journey of spire2
From the same root · spire2
Latin spiralis ← spira

Etymology

The coil is borrowed from French spire or directly borrowed from Latin spīra (“coil, twist”),[7][9][13][14][3] which is from Ancient Greek σπεῖρα (speîra, “coil, twist, winding”).[7][8][9][3][2] Klein relates the Greek noun, with a different vowel grade, to σπάρτον (spárton, “rope, cable”), and compares spiral, spireme and spiraea.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spiral or coil: Merriam-Webster dates the word to 1545,[2] Dictionary.com to 1565–75,[15] and the OED's first record, of the coils of a snake, is from 1572.[7]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of the windings of a serpent (1572), then in general and technical use (1608) and for a spiral as a whole (1611, in Jonson's Catiline).[7] A curl or wreath of smoke is recorded from 1699, in Garth,[7] and in conchology the upper whorls of a spiral shell from 1822.[7] The verb, to wind or mount spirally, is recorded from 1607, in Topsell,[7] and Merriam-Webster gives 1591;[2] the Shorter Oxford notes that it cannot always be told from the verb of the other spire.[13]

Timeline

  • 1545 – a spiral or coil.[2] The OED's first record, of a snake's coils, is from 1572.[7]
  • 1607 – verb, to wind or mount in a spiral.[7]
  • 1611 – a spiral, a series of coils.[7]
  • 1699 – a curl or wreath of smoke.[7]
  • 1822 – the upper whorls of a spiral shell.[7][13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A spiral or coil, or a single turn of one; a whorl.[2][13][7]
  2. A curl or wreath of smoke.[7][13]
  3. (zoology) The upper part of a spiral shell, made up of all the whorls except the last.[2][13][7]

Verb

  1. To wind, rise or move in a spiral.[2][7][13]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  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 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ 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)
  12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Spire.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/spire. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·