spittle

spittle¹ saliva

Etymology

The word for saliva is inherited from Middle English spetel, also spotel and spatel,^[4][5][6] altered by association with spit,^{[1][2][7][8][9]} a change that Etymonline and Barnhart call probable.^[5][6] The Middle English forms are inherited from Old English spǣtl, a variant of spātl, also spādl.^{[4][7][10][11]} The OED and the Shorter Oxford take the modern word from spattle or spettle,^[1][2] and Hoad compares Middle Low German spēdel.^[10] Etymonline traces it through Proto-Germanic *spait-, the source also of spǣtan (“to spit”), to Proto-Indo-European *sp(y)eu- (“to spew, spit”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Saliva: Old English spætl, spātl is recorded before 899, in Alfred's translation of Gregory's Pastoral Care,^[6][11] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to before the 12th century.^[7] The altered form spittle first appears in 1481, in Caxton's Myrrour of the World.^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed close to its start; what changed in the 15th century was the vowel, drawn to that of spit.^[1][2] Old English had spǣtlan beside the rarer spittan,^[1][5] and a Middle English verb was recorded in the 14th century.^[1][5] From 1722 Scots used a spittle for the amount spat out at one time,^[1][2] and Burns and other Scottish writers used it for something of no value, as in not caring a spittle.^[12][2] Since 1821, in Clare, it has also named the froth that certain insects leave on plants;^[1] Cumberland speakers used it for that froth too.^[12] In East Anglia it could be a term of contempt for a dirty person.^[12]

Timeline

• before 899 – Old English spætl, spātl, saliva.^[6]
• before 1250 – Middle English spatel.^[6]
• c. 1340 – verb, to spit out saliva.^[1]
• 1481 – the form spittle, saliva.^[1][6]
• 1596 – verb, to soil with saliva.^[1]
• 1722 – Scots, the amount of saliva spat at one time.^[1]
• 1821 – the froth secreted by an insect.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. Saliva; spit: The old sailor wiped the spittle from his chin.^[7][1][2]
2. The frothy secretion of a spittlebug or similar insect.^[7][1][2]
3. (Scots) A quantity of saliva spat out at one time; figuratively, a thing of no worth.^[1][2][12]

Verb

1. (rare) To eject saliva; to spit.^[2][1][12]
2. To make foul with saliva.^[1]

Word family

• lickspittle
• spittlebug
• spittly
• bespittle
• cuckoo-spittle

spittle² small spade

Etymology

The word for the small spade is inherited from Middle English spitel,^[4][7] inherited from Old English spitel, which appears in the Old English compounds handspitel and wādspitel.^[1][11][7] It is related to the noun and verb spit in their digging senses, and to spittan (“to dig, spade”), with Middle Dutch spitten (“to dig”) and probably spitu (“a spit”) as cognates.^[1][7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A spade or small spade, in Old English; the Shorter Oxford dates it to late Old English.^[1][2] A passage in Bosworth–Toller names iron tools called spadan and spitelas.^[11] The Middle English Dictionary's first quotation is spitelsteaf, a spade, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In 1334 spitles were used for digging turf in a marsh.^[4] The word is now dialectal.^[2][7] In the 19th century it could mean a hoe or scraper (1835) and a baker's shovel or peel (1838),^[1][2] and the verb "to dig or pare with a spittle" is recorded from 1727.^[1][2] The English Dialect Dictionary records it from Durham and Yorkshire to Gloucestershire and Somerset, with compounds such as spittle-tree, the handle of a spade.^[12]

Timeline

• Old English – a spade or small spade.^[1][2]
• 1727 – verb, to dig or pare with a small spade.^[1][2]
• 1835 – a hoe or scraper.^[1][2]
• 1838 – a baker's shovel or peel.^[1][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dialect) A spade, especially a small one; a spud.^{[7][1][2][12]}
2. (dialect) A hoe or scraper.^[1][2]
3. (dialect) A baker's wooden shovel; a peel.^{[7][1][2][12]}

Verb

1. (dialect) To dig or pare ground with a small spade.^[1][2]

Word family

• spittle-staff

spittle³ hospital

Etymology

The word for the hospital is inherited from Middle English spitel,^[4][8][13] which the OED takes as probably borrowed from Middle Low German spittel, ultimately a form of hospital without its first syllable, reshaped on the model of native words in -el.^[1] Other dictionaries treat it simply as a shortening of hospital,^[4][8][2] or as a modification of Medieval Latin hospitāle.^[7][13][14] The OED compares Middle High German spittel, Old High German spitâl and Middle Dutch spitael, and thinks their common source was Italian or Levantine, comparing dialectal Italian spitale.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A house for the poor or sick, a charitable foundation: before 1225 in the 1989 edition of the OED.^[15][1] The Middle English Dictionary has a place of quarantine for lepers and an institution sheltering the poor or infirm, with the first quotation from about 1330.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From 1571 to 1692 a spittle could be set apart from a hospital as an institution of a lower class,^[1][7] and Middle English had the compounds spitel ivel, leprosy, spitel hous and spitel lond.^[4] The phrase to rob the spittle, to make money in a mean way, ran from 1632 to 1708.^[1][2] Between 1624 and 1652 the word could mean a foul collection of something.^[1] Shakespeare wrote "To the spittle go" in Henry V, and Johnson (1755) called the word a corruption of hospital, better spelled spital, and still used in Scotland.^[16] The spelling spital is an alteration of it, which Merriam-Webster Unabridged puts down to the influence of hospital.^[7][14]

Timeline

• before 1225 – a house for the poor or sick.^[15][1]
• 1571 – a charitable house of lower rank than a hospital.^[1]
• 1624 – figuratively, a foul collection of something.^[1]
• 1632 – to rob the spittle, to profit meanly.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1225–1839) A charitable house for the poor or the sick, especially for lepers; a hospital.^{[1][2][4][17]}
2. (obsolete, 1571–1692) Such a house of a lower class than a hospital.^[1][7]

Word family

• spittle-house