spoke

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /spəʊk/, US /spoʊk/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English spoke, spake,^[2][3] inherited from Old English spāca (“spoke of a wheel, radius”),^[2][4] related to Old English spīcing “large nail”,^[2][4] from Proto-Germanic *spaikōn,^[4][2] also the source of Old Saxon spēka, Old Frisian spēke, Middle Dutch speke, Dutch spaak and Old High German speicha, German Speiche.^[4][2][5] The Germanic word is of uncertain origin, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *spei- (“sharp point”),^[2][4] the base of spike.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

One of the bars or rods that radiate from the hub of a wheel to the rim: about 888 in the OED,^[8] before 899 in Barnhart, in Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Figuratively the word was used of the wheel of Fortune from 1412–20.^[8] It was extended to a bar or rod shaped for a purpose, a stake, from 1467,^[8] to a bar put through a wheel to keep a vehicle from rolling,^[2] to the rung of a ladder from before 1658,^[8] and to the radial handles of a ship's steering wheel from 1648.^[8] The phrase put a spoke in someone's wheel, to thwart a plan, is from the late 16th century,^[9] and is probably a mistranslation of Dutch een spaak in 't wiel steeken “put a bar in the wheel”, the bar being one stuck in to stop the wheel turning.^[9] The verb, to furnish with spokes, is from 1720, in Pope's translation of the Iliad,^[4][8] and to check a wheel with a spoke from 1854.^[8] The spokeshave, a drawknife first used to shape spokes, is from 1510.^[4] In Scots, a spoke was one of the poles on which a coffin was carried to the grave, from before 1670.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 888 – a spoke of a wheel.^[8]
• 1412–20 – of the wheel of Fortune.^[8]
• 1467 – a bar or stake.^[8]
• 1510 – spokeshave.^[4]
• 1580 – a spoke in someone's wheel.^[8]
• 1648 – a handle of a steering wheel.^[8]
• a. 1658 – a rung of a ladder.^[8]
• 1720 – verb, to furnish with spokes.^[4][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Any of the rods or bars that connect the hub of a wheel to its rim.
2. One of the handles projecting from the rim of a ship's steering wheel.
3. A rod put into a wheel to stop it turning.
4. A rung of a ladder.

Verb

1. To fit with spokes.
2. To stop (a wheel) by thrusting a rod into it.

Word family

• spokeless
• spokeshave
• spokewise
• hub-and-spoke
• spoke-dog

Related words

• spike

Usage notes

Spoke is also the past tense of speak, and in archaic or dialect use its past participle.^[10][11] In Northumberland, Shropshire and Essex dialect a spoke was also a speech, a talk or a tale.^[12]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ 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)