Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To break up.
- noun A chip or splinter of wood.
- noun In ship-building, one of a number of cross-bands fastened temporarily to the frames to keep them in place until properly secured. Also called
spaling . - In mining, to inflict a fine upon for breach of some rule of the mine.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Prov. Eng. & Scot. A lath; a shaving or chip, as of wood or stone.
- noun (Shipbuilding) A strengthening cross timber.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Scotland A
chip orsplinter of wood. - noun A
lath ; a shaving or chip, as of wood or stone. - noun A strengthening cross
timber . - noun One of a number of cross-bands fastened temprarily to the frames to keep them in place until properly secured; a spaling.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Middle English spale ("splinter"), perhaps partly from Old English *spalu (“flat bar, flake, chip”) or Old Norse spǫlr ("plank, rail, bar, short piece of wood"), both from Proto-Germanic *spaluz (“pole, rod, thin bar, lath”); and partly as an alteration of Old English speld ("ember, flake, torch, splinter, thin piece of wood used as a torch"), from Proto-Germanic *speldan (“that which is split, splinter, board”); both from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pala-, *(s)pel- (“to split in two, split in half”). Cognate with Middle High German spale ("rung of a ladder"; > German dialectal Spale ("a wooden split, wedge")), Swedish dialectal spalu ("splinter"), Norwegian dialectal spel, spela, spila ("a splinter"), Icelandic spölur ("bit, short piece"). See also split.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word spale.
Examples
-
Lat þine tunge habbe spale. þu wenest þat þes dai bo þinoȝe.
Selections from early Middle English, 1130-1250 Part I: Texts Joseph Hall
-
Ef that he was payin '3 dollars a week, I should feel easier, bring your soing an' sett a good long spale. yours truly,
Vesty of the Basins Sarah P. McLean Greene 1895
-
"'Deed, Dugald, I'm just taking this bit spale boardie hame below my arm.
Bog-Myrtle and Peat Tales Chiefly of Galloway Gathered from the Years 1889 to 1895 1887
-
"Little good, little ill, like a spale amang parritch, was that chap
Mr. Hogarth's Will Catherine Helen Spence 1867
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.