spoil

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English spoilen, borrowed from Old French espoillier (“to strip, plunder”),^[2][3][4] also espoiller,^[3] from Latin spoliō (“to strip, rob, plunder”),^[4][5][6] from spolium (“skin stripped from an animal; arms taken from an enemy; booty”).^[3][5][7] In some uses it may be a shortening of despoil.^[2][8][9] The noun is spoile, from espoille, a noun formed from the French verb, or made in English from the verb;^[2][3][10] the sense "arms stripped from an enemy" follows the Latin plural spolia.^[2][6] Etymonline traces the Latin noun to Proto-Italic *spoljo- (“skin, hide”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *spel- (“to split, break off”), the idea being something split off,^[3] and Barnhart compares Ancient Greek σπολάς (spolás, “a leather garment”).^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

As a verb, to strip a slain or defeated enemy of arms and armour: c. 1330, in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle.^[2][3] Barnhart finds spoulen "to undress someone" probably about 1300.^[11] The noun, goods taken from an enemy in war, appears in the plural in Richard Rolle's Psalter before 1340.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Through the Middle Ages spoil meant to rob, pillage or plunder (from a1340, and of a place from 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible), and to strip a person of clothes.^[2][11] In the 16th century it took over the territory of the similar-sounding spill, which had meant "destroy, ruin", and came to mean to damage something so that it is useless (1560s).^[7][3][2] Weekley compares the French verb gâter, literally "lay waste", which went through similar changes.^[12] Harming a child's character by indulgence followed in the 1640s, and the intransitive sense "go bad", of food, in the 1690s.^[3][10] The American phrase spoiling for a fight, longing for it, is recorded from 1865.^[3][10] The plural noun was applied from 1770 to the public offices given to supporters of a winning party, later the spoils system of United States politics,^[2][3] and, in Gray's Elegy (1751), to things gained by special effort.^[2] In the 19th century spoil also became waste earth from digging.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – spoulen, to undress someone.^[11]
• c. 1330 – to strip a slain enemy of arms.^[2]
• a1340 – to plunder a person; noun, spoils of war.^[2]
• 1382 – to pillage a place (Wycliffite Bible).^[2][11]
• 1560s – to damage or ruin.^[3][5]
• 1640s – to harm a child by indulgence.^[3]
• 1690s – of food, to go bad.^[3]
• 1751 – things gained by effort (Gray).^[2][3]
• 1770 – public offices as a reward for party support.^[2]
• 1865 – (US) spoiling for a fight.^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To damage something so that it loses its value, usefulness or attractiveness; to ruin or mar: The rain spoiled the picnic.
2. To harm a child's character by giving in to all its wishes.
3. To treat someone with great generosity or kindness; to pamper.
4. Of food, to become unfit to eat; to go bad.
5. To make a ballot paper invalid by marking it wrongly.
6. be spoiling for: to be eager for, especially a fight.
7. (archaic) To strip of goods by force; to plunder or pillage.

Noun

1. spoils: goods or territory taken by force, especially in war; booty.
2. spoils: benefits or offices gained by a winning party or person.
3. Waste material, such as earth or rock, dug up in excavation or mining.

Word family

• spoilable
• spoilless
• spoilfive
• spoilsport
• spoiler

Related words

• despoil
• spoliation
• spill
• spoilage

Usage notes

Both spoiled and spoilt are used as the past tense and past participle.^[13][5] The proverb too many cooks spoil the broth uses the verb in the sense "ruin".^[5]

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 o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins