spur

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English spure, also spore,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English spura, also spora,^[5][6][7][8] inherited from Proto-Germanic *spurô.^[6][5][9] It is cognate with Old Saxon sporo, Middle Dutch spore and Dutch spoor, Old High German sporo and German Sporn, and Old Norse spori and Swedish sporre.^{[6][5][10][8]} The Old English noun is related to spurnan (“to kick”), the source of spurn,^[6][5][3] and to spor (“track, footprint”), related to spoor.^[5][4][11] The root is Proto-Indo-European *sper- (“to strike with the foot, kick”),^[11][7][12] which Etymonline gives as *spere- (“ankle”).^[5] The French word éperon, from Old French esporon, was borrowed from Old High German;^[13] the Anglo-Norman word is recorded from the second quarter of the 12th century.^[14] The verb, Middle English sporen or spuren, is from the noun;^[5][3][8] Old English spyrian meant to follow a track.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A device for pricking a horse's side to urge it on: before 800, in the Corpus Glossary.^[8][6] Barnhart's first Middle English record is in Layamon's Brut, probably before 1200.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Gilded or gilt spurs were the mark of a knight from the early 13th century,^[5][8] hence to win one's spurs, to gain knighthood by a brave deed, from the early 15th century;^[5][3] Merriam-Webster now defines spurs as recognition earned by achievement.^[3] In Middle English sporles, spurless, meant stripped of knightly rank.^[5] The sharp spike on the leg of a cock was called a spur from the mid-13th century, and in the 16th century the word was extended to many other projecting things,^[5][13] among them a ridge running out from a mountain (1650s) and a branch railway line (1837).^[5] Weekley remarked that such widely extended senses are characteristic of a horsey race.^[5][13] The figurative sense, anything that urges on, a stimulus, is recorded about 1390 by Barnhart, who derives it from the figurative verb,^[6] and Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century;^[5] the Shorter Oxford dates it to the mid 16th century.^[10] The verb meant both to prick a horse with spurs and to incite someone from about 1200.^[6][5][8] Chaucer used the noun in phrases of speed (about 1374),^[8] and on the spur, at full speed, is recorded from 1525;^[8][5] it survives in on the spur of the moment, recorded from 1782 by Etymonline but only from 1801 by the OED.^[5][8][13]

Timeline

• before 800 – Old English spora, a spur for a horse, in the Corpus Glossary.^[8][6]
• c. 1200 – the verb, to urge a horse on with spurs, and to incite.^[6][5][8]
• mid-13th century – the spike on a cock's leg.^[5]
• 1377 – gilt spurs as the mark of a knight, in Langland.^[8]
• c. 1390 – a stimulus, an incentive.^[6]
• early 15th century – win one's spurs.^[5]
• 1525 – on the spur, at full speed.^[8][5]
• 1596 – verb, to ride fast.^[8]
• 1650s – a ridge projecting from a mountain.^[5]
• 1782 – on the spur of the moment (1801 in the OED).^[5][8]
• 1837 – a branch railway line.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small spike or spiked wheel fixed to the heel of a rider's boot and used to urge a horse forward.^[15][2][3]
2. Something that urges a person to act; an incentive or stimulus: The prize was a spur to the young players.^[15][2]
3. A sharp horny projection on the back of the leg of a cock and some other birds.^[15][2]
4. A metal gaff fixed to the leg of a fighting cock.^[2]
5. A climbing iron.^[2]
6. A hollow projection at the base of a petal or corolla, as in the larkspur.^[15]
7. A short or stunted branch of a tree.^[15][2]
8. A bony outgrowth, as on the heel.^[2]
9. A ridge running out from a mountain or range.^[5]
10. A short branch line of a railway or road.^[5]
11. win one's spurs: to gain recognition by an achievement; originally, to be made a knight.^[3][5]
12. on the spur of the moment: without planning, on a sudden impulse.^[8][5]

Verb

1. To urge a horse on with spurs: She spurred her mare across the field.^[3][8][10]
2. To urge or stimulate to action; to incite or prompt, often with on.^[3][8][10]
3. To ride fast by spurring one's horse.^[8]
4. To provide with spurs.^[8]

Word family

• spurless
• spurlike
• spurrer
• spur-of-the-moment
• cockspur
• hotspur
• larkspur
• longspur

Related words

• spurn
• spoor

Usage notes

The OED also has an unrelated noun spur for a set of folded sheets of paper, of unknown origin (1885),^[8][10] and a Scottish spur for the house sparrow, probably from early Scandinavian (1866).^[8]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins