Etymograph

English

spit

Spit comes from Old English spitu ‘rod on which meat is cooked’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *speyd- ‘sharp’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speyd-‘sharp’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spitō‘rod’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150spitu‘rod on which meat is cooked’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spit
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1599spit

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*speyd-‘sharp’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spitō‘rod’reconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150spitu‘rod on which meat is cooked’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spit
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1599spit

Earliest quotation: 1599, William Shakespeare, The Life of Henry the Fift: “[W]hy in a moment looke to ſee / The…”

The story

The noun is from Middle English spit, spite, spete, spette, spyte, spytte (‘rod on which meat is cooked; rod used as a torture instrument; short spear; point of a spear; spine in the fin of a fish; pointed object; dagger symbol; land projecting into the sea’), from Old English spitu (‘rod on which meat is cooked; spit’), from Proto-Germanic *spitō (‘rod; skewer; spike’), *spituz (‘rod on which meat is cooked; stick’), from Proto-Indo-European *speyd-, *spey- (‘sharp; sharp stick’). The English word is cognate with Dutch spit, Low German Spitt (‘pike, spear; spike; skewer; spit’), Danish spid, Swedish spett (‘skewer; spit; type of crowbar’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *speyd- ‘sharp’

asp, aspic, 7 more

Another origin of spit

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sp(y)ēwreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150spittan
  3. Old English, derivedc. 450–1150spǣtan‘to spit’uncertain
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spē̆ten‘to spit’
  5. Englishtodayspit

The verb is from Middle English spē̆ten, spete (‘to spit (blood, phlegm, saliva, venom, etc.); of a fire: to emit sparks’), from Old English spǣtan (‘to spit; to squirt’); or from Middle English spit, spitte, spitten (‘to spit (blood, phlegm, saliva, venom, etc.); of a fire: to emit sparks’), from Old English spittan, spyttan (‘to spit’), both from Proto-Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European *sp(y)ēw, *spyū, ultimately imitative; compare Middle English spitelen (‘to spit out, expectorate’) and English spew. The English word is cognate with Danish spytte (‘to spit’), North Frisian spütte, Norwegian spytte (‘to spit’), Swedish spotta (‘to spit’), Old Norse spýta (Faroese spýta (‘to spit’), Icelandic spýta (‘to spit’)). The noun is derived from the verb; compare Danish spyt (‘spit’), Middle English spit, spytte (‘saliva, spittle, sputum’), spet (‘saliva, spittle’), spē̆tel (‘saliva, spittle’), North Frisian spiit.

Another origin of spit

  1. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500speet
  2. Englishtodayspit

The noun is from Middle Dutch speet, spit, Middle Low German spêdt, spit (Low German spit); the word is cognate with Dutch spit, North Frisian spatt, spet, West Frisian spit. The verb is from Middle English spitten (‘to dig’), from Old English spittan (‘to dig with a spade’), possibly from spitu (‘rod on which meat is cooked; spit’); see further at etymology 1. The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch spetten, spitten (modern Dutch spitten), Middle Low German speten, spitten (Low German spitten), North Frisian spat, West Frisian spitte.

Today it means

noun A thin metal or wooden rod on which meat is skewered for cooking, often over a fire.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *speyd- / spit

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