spider English · revision 6645

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=1340|origins=gem-pro *spinþrō}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈspaɪ̯də/, /ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is Middle English spithre, spyder, [[inh|ang|spīþra]], earlier *spinþra,^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(Hoad 1986) from [[gem-pro|*spinþrō]], literally “spinner”, from the source of [[spin]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(MWU 2024) from PIE [[ine-pro|*(s)pen-|t=to draw, stretch, spin]].^(Etymonline) The connection is clearer in [[nl|spin]] and [[de|Spinne]].^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) The loss of -n- before -th- is regular in Old English, as in [[goose]] and [[tooth]], and -th- later became -d-, as in [[murder]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ 1340, as spithre, in the ''Ayenbite of Inwyt'';^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) spyder is from 1440, in the ''Promptorium Parvulorum''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Etymonline notes that it was not the common word in Old or Middle English, which used loppe (Chaucer's usual word), attercop, ''poison-head'', and araine, from Latin aranea.^(Etymonline) It is used as a term of abuse for persons from 1568.^(OED 1989) A frying pan with legs is a spider from 1807, a spider-crab from 1853 and a fishing fly from 1857.^(OED 1989) In literature the spider is a figure of cunning, skill and industry as well as of venomous predation.^(Etymonline) [[spidery|alt=Spidery]] is from 1825, in Coleridge's letters.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1340 – spithre.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+ * 1440 – spyder.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1568 – a term of abuse.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1807 – a long-handled frying pan.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1825 – spidery.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # An [[arachnid]] with eight legs and a body in two parts, many kinds of which spin [[web|alt=webs]] to catch insects.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # Something resembling a spider, such as a frying pan with legs or a rest for a snooker cue.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(computing)'' A program that searches the [[World Wide Web]]; a [[crawler]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[spiderish]]

+ * [[spiderlike]]

+ * [[spiderless]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[spin]]

+ * [[spindle]]

+ * [[spinster]]

+ * [[arachnid]]

+ * [[cobweb]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}