Etymologically
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spur

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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