spavin

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English

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WOTD – 17 September 2024

Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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A drawing showing the internal (left, marked “A”) and external appearance of a spavin (sense 1.1) in a horse’s hock.

The noun is derived from Middle English spavein, spaveine (“swelling on horse’s leg causing lameness; disease causing lameness in horses”),[1] from Old French espavain, a variant of esparvain, esprevain, esprevin (modern French éparvin, épervin).[2][3] The further etymology is unknown; one suggestion is that it is from Frankish *sparwan (“sparrow”), though this is seen as quite tenuous.

The verb is derived from the noun.[4]

Noun

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spavin (countable and uncountable, plural spavins)

  1. (farriery, veterinary medicine)
    2. (countable) A bony swelling which develops in a horse's leg where the shank and splint bone meet, caused by inflammation of the cartilage connecting those bones; also, a similar swelling caused by inflammation of the hock bones.
      Hypernym: osselet
      • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 219, column 1:
        [H]is horſe hip'd vvith an olde mothy ſaddle, and ſtirrops of no kindred: beſides poſſeſt vvith the glanders, and like to moſe in the chine, troubled vvith the Lampaſſe, infected vvith the faſhions, full of VVindegalls, ſped vvith Spauins, raied vvith the Yellovvs, […]
      • 1607, Gervase Markham, “Of Spauens”, in Cauelarice, or The English Horseman: […], London: […] [Edward Allde and W[illiam] Jaggard] for Edward White, […], →OCLC, 7th book, page 78:
        Of ſpauens, there be tvvo kindes, the bone Spauen and the blood: for the bone Spauen, you ſhall dreſſe it in all things like the ſplent, and it vvil heale it. For the bloud ſpauen you ſhall take vp the veane, and vvhen it hath bled vve pull out the bladder vvhich holdes the ſpauen, and ſtop the vvound vvith Sage and ſalt, and it vvill heale it.
      • 1607, Edward Topsell, “Of the Horsse. [Of the Spauen, both Bone and Blood.]”, in The Historie of Fovre-footed Beastes. […], London: […] William Iaggard, →OCLC, page 407:
        Doubtleſſe a Spauen is an euil ſorance, and cauſeth a horſe to haule principally in the beginning of his griefe, it appeareth on the hinder Legges vvithin, and againſt the ioynt, and it vvill bee a little ſvvolne, and ſome horſes haue a thorough Spauen, vvhich appeareth both vvithin and vvithout. Of the Spauen there are tvvo kindes, the one hard the other ſoft: That is: bone-Spauen, and a blood-Spauen, […] Caſt the horſe and vvith a hot yron ſlitte the fleſh that couereth the Spauen, and then lay vpon the Spauen, Cantharides and Euforbium boyled together in oile de Bay, […]
      • 1829 November 19, “Veterinary Medical Society, 21st Oct. 1829. Discussion on Mr. W. Percivall’s Paper on Soundness.”, in [William] Percivall, [William] Youatt, editors, The Veterinarian, volume II, number 24, London: […] Compton and Ritchie, […] [for] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, […], published December 1829, →OCLC, page 509:
        Mr. Field had seen the same horses brought to his forge from day to day, and year to year, with large spavins, yet continuing perfectly sound.
    4. (uncountable) A disease of horses caused by this bony swelling (sense 1.1).
  2. (by extension, uncountable) A similar disease causing a person's leg to be lame.
    • [1920], Peter B[ernhard] Kyne, chapter XII, in The Understanding Heart, Toronto, Ont.: The Copp Clark Co., →OCLC, page 202:
      "As an inventor," Bob Mason suggested, "you're a howling success at shooting craps! If I were as free of spavins, ringbone, saddle-galls, and splints as you are, I'd have that nanny-goat in here, hog-tie her, flop her and let the boy help himself. Why monkey with weak imitations when you can come so close to the original."
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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spavin (third-person singular simple present spavins, present participle spavining, simple past and past participle spavined) (transitive, rare)

  1. (farriery, veterinary medicine) To cause (a horse or its leg) to have spavin (noun sense 1.2).
    • 1829 November 19, “Veterinary Medical Society, 21st Oct. 1829. Discussion on Mr. W. Percivall’s Paper on Soundness.”, in [William] Percivall, [William] Youatt, editors, The Veterinarian, volume II, number 24, London: […] Compton and Ritchie, […] [for] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, […], published December 1829, →OCLC, page 509:
      Mr. Lythe had seen many horses which Mr. Field had passed as sound although they were spavined; and he does not recollect a single instance of lameness among them.
    • 1867, John Hill Burton, “Heathendom”, in The History of Scotland from Agricola’s Invasion to the Revolution of 1688, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 224:
      The witches that dance on the Brocken on Valpurgis Eve would be spoken of in a different spirit from the village hag who spavins the horse and curdles the milk.
    • 1884 February 23, “Astray from San Rafael” [pseudonym], “Dudetic Leap Year”, in The Wasp, volume XII, number 8, San Francisco, Calif.: E[dward] C[reamor] Macfarlane & Co., →OCLC, stanza 4, page 11, column 1:
      And oh! Onesiphorus, the old brown mare / Is spavining for love, as also we; […]
    • 1886, A[braham] C[lark] Freeman, “Kuntzman v. Weaver”, in The American Decisions […], volume LIX, San Francisco, Calif.: Bancroft-Whitney Co. […], →OCLC, page 740:
      The plaintiff introduced evidence tending to prove that the horse was spavined, and that Kuntzman had warranted the soundness of the horse. The fourth exception on the part of the defendant and the plaintiff in error was to the rejection of the evidence that the horse was not spavined while in Weaver's stable, some two months after the sale.
    • 1894, D[aniel] Kinnear Clark, “Resistance to Traction on Tramways”, in Tramways: Their Construction and Working […], 2nd edition, London: Crosby Lockwood and Son […], →OCLC, page 402:
      In order to obviate the straining, spavining, and weakness of back, to which horses are subject, caused by the effort of starting heavy cars, Mr. Henry P. Holt designed a tramcar starting gear, patented in May, 1879, […]
  2. (figurative) To impair or injure (someone or something).
    • 1897 December 2, Joseph Smith, “The Fakir and the Milch Cow”, in Life, volume XXX, number 780, New York, N.Y.: Life Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 465, columns 2–3:
      [Fridtjof] Nansen, having accomplished nearly as much as these Americans without spavining his health or business instincts, published a book, negotiated with the Major, got out three-sheet posters of himself in modest costume and self-effacing language, and is now able to address large, long-eared and appreciative audiences at the rate of twenty dollars a minute.
    • 1983 April, Carleton Mitchell, “Cruising with Carleton Mitchell: The Key to Carefree Cruising”, in Roy Attaway, editor, Boating, volume 52, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 28, column 1:
      It [a dinghy] should be as large and sturdy as means of hoisting aboard and securing will permit, but light and handy enough to launch without spavining the mate's back.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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Origin unknown.[5]

Noun

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spavin (plural spavins)

  1. (mining) The stratum of earth underneath a coal deposit.
Translations
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References

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  1. ^ “spavein(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “spavin, n.1”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2024.
  3. ^ “spavin, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  4. ^ “spavin, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2024.
  5. ^ “spavin, n.2”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2024.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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