spange
See also: Spange
English
Etymology
Blend of spare + change, from stereotyped phrase “spare change?”, “[can you] spare any change?” Its derivation also relates to the word sponge. (That is to say spanging is sponging.)
Verb
spange (third-person singular simple present spanges, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)
- (US) to beg, particularly using the phrase “spare change?”
Usage notes
Often used to refer to one’s own activities,[1][2] without pejorative sense. Compare spanger, often used pejoratively to refer to others.
Quotations
| 1996 | |||||||
| ME « | 15th c. | 16th c. | 17th c. | 18th c. | 19th c. | 20th c. | 21st c. |
- 1996, Tim “Salvage”, quoted in Ian Fisher, “Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold.”[1]
- I don’t spange much because I really don’t like doing it. I eat out of trash cans a lot.
- 2009, Kelly Myers, 33, quoted in Joe Deegan, “Nowhere To Go”, San Diego Reader[2]
- Then my father would send all us kids out to ‘spange’ [beg for spare change]. You could sometimes make $50 a day by spanging. Other days you might make a dollar.
Derived terms
- spanger
- spanging
References
- “Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold,” Ian Fisher, December 8, 1996, The New York Times
- Nowhere To Go, by Joe Deegan, San Diego Reader, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009
- Word Watch, The Atlantic, April 1997, by Anne H. Soukhanov, executive editor of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition.
Anagrams
- paseng