spitfire

Etymology

It is formed from English spit + fire.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Spit is from Old English spittan (“to expel saliva”), from Proto-Germanic *spitjan, ultimately imitative.^[5][7] According to Etymonline, it replaced the earlier shitfire, formed like Italian cacafuoco in the dialect of Florence.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

As an adjective, spitting fire, and figuratively hot-tempered: 1600, in S. Rowlands's Letting of Humors Blood.^[2] Etymonline dates the adjective to about 1600.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant something that throws out fire, especially a cannon (1611, in Cotgrave's dictionary);^[2][3] Merriam-Webster includes a volcano.^[3] The figurative sense of a fiery, quick-tempered person is recorded from 1684,^[2] or from the 1670s according to Etymonline,^[5] and in the 19th century the word was also used of an angry cat (1825) and of a small eruption or explosion (1886).^[2] Chambers notes that the person is especially a woman.^[8] In sailors' use a spitfire jib is a storm jib.^[4] In the mid 20th century Spitfire became the name of a British single-engine fighter plane of the Second World War.^[4][8]

Timeline

• 1600 – adjective, spitting fire; figuratively, hot-tempered.^[2]
• 1611 – noun, a thing that emits fire, especially a cannon.^[2][3] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[5]
• 1684 – a person with a fiery temper.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1670s.^[5]
• 1825 – an angry cat.^[2]
• 1858 – in nautical use, of a storm jib.^[2][4]
• 1886 – a slight eruption or explosion.^[2]
• 1894 – adjective, heated, angry.^[2]
• mid 20th century – the Spitfire, a British fighter plane.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A quick-tempered, fiery or violently emotional person: Her little sister was a real spitfire.^[3][9][4]
2. Something that throws out fire, such as a cannon or a volcano.^[3][8][2]
3. Spitfire: a British single-engine fighter plane used in the Second World War.^[4][8]

Adjective

1. Throwing out fire or sparks; figuratively, irascible or hot-tempered.^[2][4]

Related words

• spit
• fire
• spitting image

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press