spit
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /spɪt/
rhymes: -ɪt
Forms: form: spits
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: They roaſt a fowl, by running a piece of wood through it, by way of ſpit, and holding it over a briſk fire, until the feathers are burnt of, when it is ready for eating, in their taſte.
ref: 1793, G. Hamilton, “[Appendix to the Tenth Volume of the Monthly Review Enlarged.] A Short Description of Carnicobar”, in The Monthly Review; or, Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume X, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, […], →OCLC, page 509:
text: An Engliſh family in the country, [...] would receive you with an unquiet hoſpitality, and an anxious politeneſs; and after waiting for a hurry-ſcurry derangement of cloth, table, plates, ſideboard, pot and ſpit, would give you perhaps ſo good a dinner, that none of the family, between anxiety and fatigue, could ſupply one word of converſation, and you would depart under cordial wiſhes that you might never return.—This folly, ſo common in England, is never met with in France: [...]
ref: 1793, Arthur Young, “1788 [chapter]”, in Travels during the Years 1787, 1788 and 1789, Undertaken More Particularly with a View of Ascertaining the Cultivation, Wealth, Resources, and National Prosperity of the Kingdom of France. […] In Two Volumes, volume I, Dublin: Printed for Messrs. R. Cross, […], →OCLC, page 192:
text: When the joint to be roasted is thicker at one end than the other, place the spit slanting, so that the whole time the thickest part is nearest the fire, and also the thinnest by this means is preserved from being overmuch roasted.
ref: 1817, [William Kitchiner], “Roasting”, in Apicius Redivivus; or, The Cook’s Oracle: […], London: Printed for Samuel Bagster, […], by J. Moyes, […], →OCLC:
text: The spits upon which the double sections of fish are transfixed are iron rods about 7 feet long, provided with an L-shaped handle at one end, so that when hung on a bracket at either side of the fireplace it may be turned by hand.
ref: 1950, James Hornell, “The Greatest Eel-farm and Eel-trap in the World”, in Fishing in Many Waters, 1st paperback edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: At the University Press, published 2014, →ISBN, page 166:
synonyms: broach
glosses: A thin metal or wooden rod on which meat is skewered for cooking, often over a fire.
examples: text: Sand-spits are unfinished beaches, and long tongues or points of land, formed of sand and shingle, by the transporting action of currents and the waves. In Coldspring harbor, a sand-spit extends from the west shore, obliquely, nearly across. [...] The materials are transported by the currents and waves, and deposited to form this spit.
ref: 1843, William W[illiams] Mather, “Marine Alluvial Detritus”, in Geology of New-York (Natural History of New York; part 4), part I (Comprising the Geology of the First Geological District), Albany, N.Y.: Printed by Carroll & Cook, […], →OCLC, page 28:
text: Or perhaps he may see a group of washerwomen relieved, on a spit of shingle, against the blue sea, [...]
ref: 1874, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Ordered South”, in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC, page 147:
text: Chiao Shih, 44 feet high, lies about 1/2 mile southeastward of Ko-li, a 199-foot islet, that lies close off the south end of Pei-kan-t’ang Tao and is connected to it by a stoney spit.
ref: 1962, Publications, number 94, United States Hydrographic Office, →OCLC, page 228, column 2:
text: Playa margins are dominated by relict shoreline features, such as wave-cut terraces, depositional beach ridges, and offshore bars and spits.
ref: 2016, Robert C. Graham, A. Toby O’Geen, “Geomorphology and Soils”, in Harold Mooney, Erika Zavaleta, editors, Ecosystems of California, Oakland, Calif.: University of California Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Drivers), page 63, column 1:
topics: geography
natural-sciences
glosses: A generally low, narrow, pointed, usually sandy peninsula.
Derived terms: word: sandspit
word: spit cake
word: spit engine
english: sense 2
translation: sense 2
word: Spithead
word: spit jack
word: spit of land
Related terms: skewer