span

span

See also: Span, SPAN, spàn, spân, spãn, špan, and Spāņ

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English spanne, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spannō (“span, handbreadth”). Cognate with Dutch span, spanne, German Spanne. The sense “pair of horses” is probably from Old English ġespan, ġespann (“a joining; a fastening together; clasp; yoke”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?]. Cognate with Dutch gespan, German Gespann.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /spæn/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /spæːn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æn

Noun

span (plural spans)

1. The full width of an open hand from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger used as an informal unit of length.
2. Any of various traditional units of length approximating this distance, especially the English handspan of 9 inches forming ⅛ fathom and equivalent to 22.86 cm.
3. (by extension) A small space or a brief portion of time.
   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, OCLC 1167497017:

     "Why in ten thousand years scarce will the rain and storms lessen a mountain top by a span in thickness?"

   • 1738, [Alexander Pope], “Stanza VI”, in The Universal Prayer. […], London [actually Edinburgh]: […] [Thomas Ruddiman] for R[obert] Dodsley, […], OCLC 877314508, page 5:

     Yet not to Earth's contracted Span,
     Thy Goodneſs let me bound; […]

   • 1699, George Farquhar, The Constant Couple

     Life's but a span; I'll every inch enjoy.

   • 2007. Zerzan, John. Silence.

     The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans,

   He has a short attention span and gets bored within minutes.

4. A portion of something by length; a subsequence.
   • 2004, Robert Harris, Robert Warner, The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace (page 759)

     For example, in OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Word, each span of text can have a style that defines key characteristics about the text: • What font it uses • Whether it's normal, bolded, italicized, […]

5. (architecture, construction) The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
   • 1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5:

     The force of the explosion demolished one pair of piers and two spans of the bridge crashed down into the river on top of the barges.

6. (architecture, construction) The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
7. (nautical) A rope having its ends made fast so that a purchase can be hooked to the bight; also, a rope made fast in the center so that both ends can be used.
8. (US, Canada) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.
9. (mathematics) The space of all linear combinations of something.
10. (computing) The time required to execute a parallel algorithm on an infinite number of processors, i.e. the shortest distance across a directed acyclic graph representing the computation steps.
    • 2017, Ananya Kumar; Guy E. Blelloch; Robert Harper, “Parallel Functional Arrays”, in ACM SIGPLAN Notices, DOI:10.1145/3009837.3009869:

      We use the term span (also called depth, or dependence depth) to refer to the number of parallel steps assuming an unbounded number of processors.

11. wingspan of a plane or bird

Derived terms

• cospan
• forspan
• gerospan
• inspan
• midspan
• outspan
• overspan
• spanless
• spannable
• spanned → unspanned
• spanner
• spanning → multi-, overspanning
• spanwise
• subspan
• supraspan
• tetraspan

Compound words with this term at the end

• arm span
• attention span
• clearspan
• drawspan
• endspan
• eyespan
• handspan
• healthspan
• knot span
• legspan
• lifespan
• life span
• linkspan
• long-span
• mainspan
• makespan
• memory span
• palmspan
• spick-and-span (spick and span)
• timespan
• widespan
• wingspan

Compound words and expressions with this term at the beginning

• span block
• span counter
• span iron
• span of control
• span roof
• span shackle
• spanworm

 

Expressions with this term at the end

• linear span

 

Related terms

• spang (Scotland)

Translations

Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand

Arabic: شِبْر‎ m (šibr) Moroccan Arabic: شبر‎ m (šbar) Armenian: թիզ (hy) (tʿiz) Bulgarian: педя f (pedja) Catalan: pam (ca) m Czech: píď f Danish: spand (da) c Faroese: sponn f Finnish: vaaksa (fi) French: empan (fr) m Galician: palmo (gl) m German: Spanne (de) f Greek: Ancient: σπιθαμή f (spithamḗ) Hebrew: זֶרֶת‎ (he) f (zéret) Hungarian: arasz (hu) Irish: réise f Italian: spanna (it) Kazakh: сүйем (süiem) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: بست‎ (ku) (bist) Maori: whanga Persian: وجب‎ (fa) (vajab) Polish: piędź (pl) f Portuguese: palmo (pt) m Russian: пядь (ru) f (pjadʹ) Spanish: palmo (es) m, cuarta (es) f Swahili: shibiri Tagalog: damak, sandamak Telugu: జాన (te) (jāna) Tocharian B: raso Turkish: karış (tr) Ugaritic: 𐎜𐎉 (ủṭ) Walloon: aspagne (wa) f Welsh: sban f

small space or a brief portion of time

Bulgarian: късо разстояние n (kǎso razstojanie), кратко време n (kratko vreme) Catalan: període (ca) Finnish: vaaksa (fi) (space), hetki (fi) (time) Hungarian: (chiefly space) kiterjedés (hu), szakasz (hu), köz (hu), táv (hu), (time) időtartam (hu), leforgás (hu) Italian: periodo (it) Portuguese: período (pt) Russian: пери́од (ru) m (períod) Spanish: lapso (es) m

spread between supports

Azerbaijani: aşırım Bulgarian: просвет (bg) m (prosvet) Finnish: jänneväli (fi) Hungarian: fesztáv, ívnyílás Italian: luce (it), campata (it) f, portata (it) f Maori: tāwhana Norwegian: Bokmål: spennvidde m or f Nynorsk: spennvidd f, spennvidde f Polish: przęsło (pl) n Portuguese: vão (pt) m Russian: пролёт (ru) (proljót) Spanish: luz (es) f Swedish: spann (sv) n

length between supports

Finnish: jänneväli (fi) Hungarian: szárnytávolság (hu), fesztávolság (hu) Maori: tāwhana Russian: пролёт (ru) (proljót) Swedish: spann (sv) n

nautical: rope having its ends made fast

pair of horses or other animals

Bulgarian: впряг (bg) m (vprjag) Dutch: span (nl) n Finnish: parivaljakko (fi) Hungarian: fogat (hu), pár (hu) Swedish: spann (sv) n Westrobothnian: tjwiok n

mathematics: the space of all linear combinations of something

Finnish: viritelmä (fi) Portuguese: espaço gerado Swedish: spann (sv) n

See also

• chord

Etymology 2

From Middle English spannen, from Old English spannan, from Proto-Germanic *spannaną (“to stretch, span”). Cognate with German spannen, Dutch spannen.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /spæn/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /spæːn/
• Rhymes: -æn

Verb

span (third-person singular simple present spans, present participle spanning, simple past and past participle spanned)

1. (transitive) To extend through the distance between or across.

   The suspension bridge spanned the canyon.

   • 1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, OCLC 645131689:

     The rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry.

2. (transitive) To extend through (a time period).

   The parking lot spans three acres.

   The novel spans three centuries.

3. (transitive) To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.

   to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Isaiah 48:13, column 2:

     Mine hand alſo hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath ſpanned the heauens: when I call vnto them, they ſtand vp together.

4. (mathematics) To generate an entire space by means of linear combinations.
5. (intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
6. (transitive) To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.

Translations

to extend through the distance between or across

Azerbaijani: uzanmaq (az) Bulgarian: обхващам (bg) (obhvaštam) Finnish: kulkea (fi) French: couvrir (fr), chevaucher (fr) German: überspannen (de), einnehmen (de) Hungarian: átível (hu), áthidal (hu) Italian: coprire (it) Lithuanian: apim̃ti Maori: tūhāngai, tīpae Slovak: preklenúť Spanish: cubrir (es) Swedish: spänna över, sträcka sig över

to extend through a time period

Bulgarian: обхващам (bg) (obhvaštam) Finnish: kattaa (fi) French: couvrir (fr), s'étendre (fr) Hungarian: felölel (hu) Polish: obejmować (pl), mieć zasięg, rozciągać się (pl) Portuguese: abranger (pt) Spanish: abarcar (es) Swedish: spänna över, sträcka sig över

mathematics: to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations

German: aufspannen (de) Swedish: spänna upp

Etymology 3

From Middle English span, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spann, first and third person singular preterit indicative of Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian, General American) IPA^(key): /spæn/
• Rhymes: -æn

Verb

span

1. (archaic, now nonstandard) simple past tense of spin
   • 1593, anonymous, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

     But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan,
     VVho was then a Gentleman?

   • 1891, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “How Hall of Lithdale Took Tidings to Iceland”, in Eric Brighteyes, 2nd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., OCLC 935241280, page 204:

     So they went in to where Gudruda sat spinning in the hall, singing as she span.

   • 2014 September 29, Reuters, “Five spectators in critical condition following stunt truck accident”, in Irish Independent‎, archived from the original on 11 March 2016:

     Five spectators remained in critical condition on Monday, a day after they were injured when a giant pick-up truck span out of control during a stunt show in a Dutch town, killing three people, local officials said.

Anagrams

• ANPs, NPAS, NSPA, PANs, PNAS, PNAs, Pans, SNAP, naps, pans, snap

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɑn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: span
• Rhymes: -ɑn

Etymology 1

From older gespan.

Noun

span n (plural spannen, diminutive spannetje n)

1. A span, a team (pair or larger team of draught animals). [from 17th c.]
2. A cart or instrument with a team of draught animals. [from 18th c.]
3. A romantic pair, couple. [from 19th c.]

Derived terms

• driespan
• tweespan
• vierspan
• zesspan

Descendants

• Afrikaans: span

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

span

1. first-person singular present indicative of spannen
2. imperative of spannen

Anagrams

• snap

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Middle English

Noun

span

1. Alternative form of spanne

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Sranan Tongo

Etymology

Borrowed from Dutch gespannen.

Noun

span

1. tense

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Swedish

Etymology

Deverbal from spana.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɑːn/
• Rhymes: -ɑːn

Noun

span n

1. (colloquial) an act of spying (something)

   Jag hade fått span på en dam som kan få en att bli monogam

   I had spied a lady that can make one monogamous

2. (colloquial) stakeout

References

• span in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

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West Frisian

Etymology

From Low German or Dutch spannen (“to yoke, stretch”).

Noun

span n (plural spannen, diminutive spantsje)

1. span, team (pair of draught animals in a team)
2. pair, couple

Further reading

• “span (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011