spelt · verb1
- Middle English · inherited fromspelde
- English todayspelt
From Late Middle English spelde (past tense) and spelled, ispeled, ispelled (past participles). The past tense reflects an early Middle English syncopation of spellede, while the past participle remained largely disyllabic until the general Early Modern English reduction of the -ed suffix. In both cases, once the medial vowel was lost, the final alveolar stop underwent phonetic devoicing after the sonorant /l/, resulting in the modern -t spelling. Compare dwelt, felt, and smelt. By surface analysis, spell + -t.
spelt · noun2
- Proto-Germanic · derived from*spiltaz“spelt”
- Frankish · derived from*spelta“spelt”
- Late Latin · derived fromspelta“spelt”
- Old Saxon · derived fromspelta“spelt”
- Old English · inherited fromspelt“spelt, corn”
- Middle English · inherited fromspelt
- English todayspelt
From Middle English spelt, from Old English spelt (“spelt, corn”), from Old Saxon spelta (“spelt”); or from Late Latin spelta (“spelt”), from Frankish *spelta (“spelt”); all from Proto-Germanic *spiltaz (“spelt”).
spelt · noun, adjective, verb3
- Middle English · inherited fromspelt
- Old English · inherited fromspelt
- Middle English · inherited fromspelt
- English todayspelt
The noun is from Middle English spelt, from Old English spelt, connected with the verb. Compare speld and German Spelze (“husk”). The adjective is from Middle English spelt, probably a contraction of spelked, past participle of spelken (“to bruise (beans)”), itself of obscure origin. Compare Scots spilkings (“split peas”), the later verb, and perhaps also splet. The verb is probably from the adjective. Compare earlier spald, speld.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.