spang

spang

See also: Spang and spång

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spæŋ/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æŋ

Etymology 1

From Middle English spang (“a small piece of ornamental metal; spangle; small ornament; a bowl or cup”), likely from Middle Dutch spange (“buckle, clasp”) or Old English spang (“buckle, clasp”).

This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Noun

spang (plural spangs)

1. (obsolete) A shiny ornament or object; a spangle
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938, stanza 45:

     With glittering spangs that did like starres appeare.

Derived terms

• spangle

Verb

spang (third-person singular simple present spangs, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)

1. To set with bright points: star or spangle.
2. To hitch; fasten.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic.

Verb

spang (third-person singular simple present spangs, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)

1. (intransitive, of a flying object such as a bullet) To strike or ricochet with a loud report
   • 1895 October 1, Stephen Crane, chapter 18, in The Red Badge of Courage, 1st US edition, New York: D. Appleton and Company, page 173:

     Occasional bullets buzzed in the air and spanged into tree trunks.

   • 1918, Zane Grey, The U.P. Trail

     How clear, sweet, spanging the hammer blows!

Adverb

spang (not comparable)

1. (dated) Suddenly; slap, smack.
   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber 2007, p. 22:

     And I didn't stop until I found myself spang in the middle of the Musée de Cluny, clutching the rack.

Etymology 3

Probably from spring (verb) or spank (verb) (Can this⁽⁺⁾ etymology be sourced?)

Verb

spang (third-person singular simple present spangs, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)

1. (intransitive, dialect, UK, Scotland) To leap; spring.
   • a. 1758, Allan Ramsay, epistle to Robert Yarde

     But when they spang o'er reason's fence, / We smart for't at our own expense.

2. (transitive, dialect, UK, Scotland) To cause to spring; set forcibly in motion; throw with violence.

Noun

spang (plural spangs)

1. (Scotland) A bound or spring; a leap.
   • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], Rob Roy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, OCLC 82790126:

     "Set roasted beef and pudding on the opposite side o' the pit o' Tophet , and an Englishman will mak a spang at it"

Etymology 4

See span

Noun

spang (plural spangs)

1. (Scotland) A span.

References

• spang in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• spang in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Anagrams

• Pangs, pangs

---

Westrobothnian

Etymology

From Old Norse spǫng, cf. Swedish spång. See also German Spange (clasp). Probably related to span from Proto-Germanic *spannaną.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [spɑ́ŋː], [spɒ́ŋː] (example of pronunciation)

  Rhymes: -áŋɡ

Noun

spang f (definite singular spanga, plural spinger, definite plural spingren)

1. a simple one-man bridge, log bridge, footbridge[1]

References

1. Rietz, Johan Ernst, “spang”, in Svenskt dialektlexikon: ordbok öfver svenska allmogespråket [Swedish dialectal lexicon: a dictionary for the Swedish lects] (in Swedish), 1962 edition, Lund: C. W. K. Gleerups Förlag, published 1862–1867, page 654