Etymology

spew

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Today it means: To eject forcibly and in a stream. Full definition →

Middle English spewen ← Old English spīwan ← Proto-West Germanic *spīwan
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*(s)ptyēw-“to spit, vomit”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*spīwaną
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*spīwan
  4. Old English · inherited fromspīwan
  5. Middle English · inherited fromspewen
  6. English todayspew

From Middle English spewen, from Old English spīwan, from Proto-West Germanic *spīwan, from Proto-Germanic *spīwaną, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ptyēw- (“to spit, vomit”). Germanic cognates include English spit, West Frisian spije, Dutch spuien, Dutch spuwen, Low German speen, spiien, German speien (“to spew, spit, vomit”), Swedish spy, Danish spy, Faroese spýggja, Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌴𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌽 (speiwan). Also cognate, through Indo-European, with Latin spuō (“spit”, verb), Ancient Greek πτύω (ptúō, “spit, vomit”), Albanian fyt (“throat”), Armenian թուք (tʻukʻ), Russian плева́ть (plevátʹ), Persian تف (tof), Sanskrit ष्ठीवति (ṣṭhī́vati).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.