speer

See also: Speer

English

Alternative forms

• spear, sper, spere, speir, spire, spyrr

Etymology

From Middle English spuren, from Old English spyrian, from Proto-Germanic *spurjaną. Cognate with German spüren, Swedish spörja.

Verb

speer (third-person singular simple present speers, present participle speering, simple past and past participle speered)

1. (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)

1. spear

   Synonyms: spies, lans, geer

   Hyponyms: slagspeer, steekspeer, werpspeer

   Meronyms: schacht, speerpunt

Meronyms

• schacht
• speerpunt

Derived terms

• slagspeer
• speerdistel
• speerpunt
• steekspeer
• werpspeer

Descendants

• → Papiamentu: sper

Middle English

Noun

speer

1. Alternative form of spere (“spear”)