spean
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See also: Spean
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English *spene, *spane, from Old English spane, spanu (“teat”), from Proto-West Germanic *spanu, *spenu, from Proto-Germanic *spenô (“nipple”), from Proto-Indo-European *pstḗn (“breast; teat”). Cognate with West Frisian spien (“nipple”), Dutch speen (“nipple”), Danish spene (“teat”), Swedish spene (“teat, nipple, dug”), Icelandic speni (“teat”).
Alternatively a borrowing from Dutch speen (“nipple, teat”), from the same Proto-Germanic origin as above.
Noun
[edit]spean (plural speans)
- (archaic or dialectal) A teat or nipple of a cow.
- [1780?], Nicholas Coxe, The Huntſman. Containing the Best Methods of Sport, for Courſing with Greyhounds, and Hunting All Kinds of Chases in England, […] , London: J. Dixwell, page 50:
- The Genital part is all nervy; the Tail ſmall; and the Hind hath Udders betwixt her Thighs, with four Speans or Tets, like a Cow.
Etymology 2
[edit]From Middle English spanen (“to wean”); see spane.
Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]spean (third-person singular simple present speans, present participle speaning, simple past and past participle speaned)
- Archaic form of spane.
- 1899, Colville, Vernacular, page 15,
- Beginning life as a grice, the pig when speaned became a shot.
- 1899, Colville, Vernacular, page 15,
Anagrams
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