speer
See also: Speer
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English spuren, from Old English spyrian, from Proto-Germanic *spurjaną. Cognate with German spüren, Danish spørge, Norwegian Bokmål spørre, Swedish spörja.
Verb
speer (third-person singular simple present speers, present participle speering, simple past and past participle speered)
- (archaic, Scotland) to ask, to inquire
- 1778, Alexander Ross, Helenore: Or, The Fortunate Shepherdess, page 87:
- Afore lang days, I hope to see him here, / About his milkness and his cows to speer.
- 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], Rob Roy. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC:
- "A town ca'd Glasgow!" echoed Andrew Fairservice. "Glasgow's a ceety, man.—And is't the way to Glasgow ye were speering if I ken'd? […] "
References
- “speer”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Anagrams
- prees, peers, Reeps, spere, esper, Prees, Peres, pères, Perse, Spree, spree, Esper, Peers, per se, Serpe, perse
Dutch
Etymology
From Middle Dutch spēre, from Old Dutch *speru, from Proto-West Germanic *speru, from Proto-Germanic *speru.
Pronunciation
Audio: (file)
Noun
speer f (plural speren, diminutive speertje n)
Meronyms
Derived terms
- slagspeer
- speerdistel
- speerpunt
- steekspeer
- werpspeer
Descendants
- → Papiamentu: sper
Middle English
Noun
speer
- alternative form of spere (“spear”)