Etymology

forspill

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Today it means: To destroy; ruin; lose. Full definition →

Middle English forspillen ← Old English forspillan ← Proto-West Germanic *furispilþijan
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The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*furispilþijan
  2. Old English · inherited fromforspillan
  3. Middle English · inherited fromforspillen
  4. English todayforspill

From Middle English forspillen, from Old English forspillan, forspildan (“to waste, lose, disperse, bring to nothing, destroy, ruin, kill”), from Proto-West Germanic *furispilþijan. Equivalent to for- + spill. Cognate with Old High German farspildan, Dutch verspillen (“to waste”), Swedish förspilla (“to waste”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.