spout

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English spouten, also sputen.^[2][3] The OED says it may continue an unrecorded Old English verb, or be borrowed from Middle Dutch spouten (“to discharge from a pipe, squirt, spurt”), or a borrowing from early Scandinavian;^[4][2] the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford take it from the Middle Dutch verb,^[5][6] and Collins does so with a "perhaps".^[7] Its relatives include Middle Low German spoiten (“to spray, squirt”), Middle High German spiutzen (“to spit”), Old Norse spýta (“to spit”), Swedish sputa (“to spurt”) and Dutch spuiten.^[4][8][9] The group is ultimately imitative;^[8][10][6] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Germanic *sput-, from Proto-Indo-European *sp(y)eu- (“to spew, spit”),^[8] and the OED takes it as probably an extended form of the Germanic base of spew.^[4] The noun is probably formed from the verb,^{[4][11][6][8]} and corresponds to spoyte, denoting a syringe, pipe or waterspout.^[4][11] The OED thinks that northern field names such as “Sputekelde” (Cumberland, about 1200) reflect the Scandinavian word rather than early English use.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To discharge a liquid, or to gush with water or blood: before 1325, as sputen, according to Barnhart;^[3] Etymonline dates the verb to the early 14th century.^[8] The OED's first quotation, from the early Wycliffite Bible (before 1382), has the now obsolete sense "to drench with a stream".^[4] The noun is first recorded in 1392, for a pipe that carries rainwater off a roof.^[4][8][3]

Semantic evolution

The noun spread from the roof pipe to other pipes and nozzles (1408) and to the lip of a jug or other vessel (1412),^[4] which Etymonline dates to the mid-15th century.^[8] A spout was a stream or jet of liquid from before 1513, in Dunbar,^[4] and a whale's blowhole from 1646; from 1683 a whale was said to spout when it blew.^[4] The figurative verb, to utter words at length or without thought, is quoted from 1542 in the OED,^[4] from the 1610s in Etymonline, which dates the dismissive sense of long speeches of little matter to 1756.^[8] Johnson (1755) derived the noun from Dutch.^[12] In slang, spout was the lift in a pawnbroker's shop that carried pledged goods upstairs (1819),^[4][8] hence the verb "to pawn" (1811)^[13] and the phrase up the spout, lost or gone beyond recall (1812);^[8] from 1879 up the spout was also said of a cartridge in the barrel of a gun.^[4] In Scotland and the north a spout was also a razor shell, which squirts when disturbed,^[4][14] and the dialects had compounds such as spout-gun, a popgun.^[14]

Timeline

• before 1325 – verb, to discharge a liquid; to gush with water or blood.^[3] Etymonline dates the verb to the early 14th century.^[8]
• before 1382 – to drench with a stream of liquid (obsolete).^[4]
• 1392 – noun, a pipe draining rainwater from a roof.^[4][3]
• before 1398 – to discharge forcibly in a stream.^[4]
• 1412 – the lip of a jug or other vessel.^[4]
• before 1513 – a jet of liquid; of a liquid, to gush out.^[4]
• 1542 – to utter words at length or without thought.^[4]
• 1646 – the blowhole of a whale.^[4]
• 1683 – of a whale, to blow.^[4]
• 1811 – slang, to pawn.^[13]
• 1812 – up the spout, lost, beyond recall.^[8]
• 1819 – the lift in a pawnbroker's shop.^[4]
• 1879 – slang, the barrel of a gun.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To send out a liquid in a jet or forceful stream: The broken main spouted water across the road.^[7][9][4]
2. Of a liquid, to gush out from a narrow opening.^[7][4]
3. Of a whale, to blow air and spray from the blowhole.^[7][4]
4. (informal) To speak at length, often pompously or without thought: He spent the dinner spouting statistics.^[7][9][4]

Noun

1. A tube or lip on a container, through which liquid is poured: the spout of a teapot.^[7][9][4]
2. A pipe or chute that carries off water, grain and the like, such as a downspout.^[7][9][4]
3. A continuous stream or jet of liquid.^[7][4]
4. A waterspout.^[7][9]
5. up the spout (slang): ruined or lost; formerly, pawned.^[7][8][4]

Word family

• spouter
• spouted
• spoutless
• spoutlike
• downspout
• rainspout
• waterspout

Related words

• spew
• spit

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ a b 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)