Etymologically
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spoil

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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