speel

speel · verb¹

1. Old English · inherited fromspilian“to play”
2. Middle English · inherited fromspilen
3. Middle Dutch · derived fromspelen“to play, walk a tight rope, do gymnastic tricks, juggle, perform as an actor or clown”
4. Early Scots · derived fromspelare“acrobat, tumbler”
5. Early Scots · borrowed fromspeill“to climb”
6. English todayspeel

From Early Scots speill (“to climb”), of obscure origin. From or akin to Early Scots spelare (“acrobat, tumbler”). Probably from Middle Dutch spelen (“to play, walk a tight rope, do gymnastic tricks, juggle, perform as an actor or clown”), see spiel. Alternately, representing a continuation of Middle English spilen, from Old English spilian (“to play”).

speel · verb²

From English dialectal speel (“talk; lingo; patter”), short for bonspiel. Related to spiel.

speel · noun³

1. Afrikaans · derived fromspeel
2. English todayspeel

Probably from Afrikaans speel. Compare Middle English spel (“a story; tale; narrative”). Doublet of spell and shpiel.

speel · noun⁴

Possibly related to spile.

speel · noun, verb⁵

1. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*spilōn
2. Old English · inherited fromspilian“to revel, play”
3. Middle English · inherited fromspilen“to revel, play”
4. English todayspeel

Perhaps continuing Middle English spilen (“to revel, play”), from Old English spilian (“to revel, play”), from Proto-West Germanic *spilōn. Cognate with Dutch spelen (“to play”), German spielen (“to play”), Luxembourgish spillen (“to play”), Icelandic spila (“to play”), Faroese spæla (“to play”), Swedish spela (“to play”), Danish spille (“to play”), Norwegian spille (“to play”).