spean
English
Alternative forms
- spane (Scotland)
- spene, speen (Kent)
- spaine, speane (obsolete)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /spiːn/
- Rhymes: -iːn
Etymology 1
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
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.
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Etymology 2
From Middle English spanen (“to wean”), probably a borrowing from Middle Dutch spanen, spenen or Middle Low German spānen, spēnen, spōnen (“to wean”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *spanjaną, *spanōną, from Proto-Germanic *spenô (“nipple”), from Proto-Indo-European *pstḗn (“breast; teat”). Cognate with Dutch spenen (“to wean”), German spänen (“to wean”), Old French espanir (“to wean”) (< Germanic).
Verb
spean (third-person singular simple present speans, present participle speaning, simple past and past participle speaned)
- (archaic) to wean
Anagrams
- Aspen, NAPEs, Panes, Snape, aspen, napes, neaps, panes, peans, snape, sneap, spane