spar

spar · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)par-“beam, log”
2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*sparrô“stake, beam”
3. Middle Low German · derived fromSparre
4. Middle Dutch · derived fromsparre
5. Middle English · derived fromsparre“spar, rafter, beam”
6. English todayspar

From Middle English sparre (“spar, rafter, beam”) (noun), sparren (“to close, bar”) (verb), from Middle Dutch sparre or Middle Low German Sparre, all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sparrô (“stake, beam”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- (“beam, log”). Compare Dutch spar (“balk”), German Sparren (“rafter, spar”), Danish sparre (“spar”), Albanian shparr, shpardh (“kind of oak”). Perhaps also compare spear.

spar · verb, noun²

1. Old English · derived fromsperran
2. Middle English · derived fromsparren“to dart out; to strike out”
3. English todayspar

From Middle English sparren (“to dart out; to strike out”), from Old English sperran, spirran, spyrran (“to strike, strike out at, spar”), related to Low German sparre (“a struggling, striving”), German sich sperren (“to struggle, resist, oppose”), Icelandic sperrast (“to kick out at, thrust, struggle”). The slang sense of friend is probably from the phrase sparring partner under the influence of the similar slang words par and star.

spar · noun³

1. Middle Low Germanspar
2. Old Englishspærstān
3. Middle Englishsparston
4. Englishsparstonebf.
5. English todayspar

From Middle Low German spar, sper (“spar”); or from a backformation of sparstone (“spar”), from Middle English sparston (“gypsum, chalk”), from Old English spærstān (“gypsum”). Related to German Sparkalk (“plaster”), Old English spæren (“of plaster, of mortar”).

Words from the same roots