spit
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /spɪt/
rhymes: -ɪt
Forms: form: spits
form: spitting
form: spitted
form: spitted
Etymology: The noun is from Middle English spit, spite, spete, spette, spyte, spytte (“rod on which meat is cooked; rod used as a torture instrument; short spear; point of a spear; spine in the fin of a fish; pointed object; dagger symbol; land projecting into the sea”), from Old English spitu (“rod on which meat is cooked; spit”), from Proto-Germanic *spitō (“rod; skewer; spike”), *spituz (“rod on which meat is cooked; stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *speyd-, *spey- (“sharp; sharp stick”). The English word is cognate with Dutch spit, Low German Spitt (“pike, spear; spike; skewer; spit”), Danish spid, Swedish spett (“skewer; spit; type of crowbar”).
The verb is derived from the noun, or from Middle English spiten (“to put on a spit; to impale”), from spit, spite: see above. The English verb is cognate with Middle Dutch speten, spitten (modern Dutch speten), Middle Low German speten (Low German spitten, modern German spießen (“to skewer, to spear”), spissen (now dialectal)) and Danish spidde.
Senses: examples: text: to spit a loin of veal
text: [W]hy in a moment looke to ſee / The blind and bloody Souldier, with foule hand / Deſire the Locks of your ſhrill-ſhriking Daughters: / Your Fathers taken by the ſiluer Bears, / And their moſt reuerend Heads daſht to the Walls: / Your naked Infants ſpitted vpon Pykes, / Whiles the mad Mothers, with their howles confus'd, / Doe breake the Clouds, [...] / What ſay you? Will you yeeld, and thus auoyd? / Or guiltie in defence, be thus destroy'd.
ref: 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii], page 79, column 1:
text: Fried or roast mice, spitted on sticks like kebabs, are often offered for sale by the roadside.
ref: 1991, I. F. La Croix, E. A. S. La Croix, T. M. La Croix, “Malaŵi: Climate and Geography”, in Orchids of Malaŵi: The Epiphytic and Terrestrial Orchids from South and East Central Africa, Rotterdam; Brookfield, Vt.: A[ugust] A[imé] Balkema, →ISBN, page 4, column 2:
text: [H]e has seen kitchens thrown into turmoil, and he himself has been down in the grey-green hour before dawn, when the brick ovens are swabbed out ready for the first batch of loaves, as carcasses are spitted, pots set on trivets, poultry plucked and jointed.
ref: 2012, Hilary Mantel, “Falcons: Wiltshire, September 1535”, in Bring Up the Bodies, London: Fourth Estate, →ISBN, part 1:
glosses: To impale on a spit; to pierce with a sharp object.
examples: text: She’s spitting the roast in the kitchen.
text: Moll. Ha's my Mother ſeene him yet. / Frail[ty]. O no, ſhee's—ſpitting in the Kitchin.
ref: 1607, W. S. [attributed to Thomas Middleton or William Shakespeare (doubtful)], The Pvritaine. Or The VViddovv of Watling-streete. […], imprinted at London: By G[eorge] Eld, →OCLC, Act II:
text: [H]e saw that the fires scattered all over the massive camp were emitting greasy fumes from the carcasses of the burning animals spitted over the flames.
ref: 2005, Gary Alan Wassner, chapter 36, in The Twins, Port Orchard, Wash.: Windstorm Creative, →ISBN; republished London: Gateway, 2014, →ISBN:
glosses: To use a spit to cook; to attend to food that is cooking on a spit.