spavin
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈspævɪn/
rhymes: -ævɪn
Forms: form: spavins
form: spavining
form: spavined
form: spavined
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English spavein, spaveine (“swelling on horse’s leg causing lameness; disease causing lameness in horses”), from Old French espavain, a variant of esparvain, esprevain, esprevin (modern French éparvin, épervin). The further etymology is unknown; one suggestion is that it is from Frankish *sparwan (“sparrow”), though this is seen as quite tenuous.
The verb is derived from the noun.
Senses: examples: text: Mr. Lythe had seen many horses which Mr. Field had passed as sound although they were spavined; and he does not recollect a single instance of lameness among them.
ref: 1829 November 19, “Veterinary Medical Society, 21st Oct. 1829. Discussion on Mr. W. Percivall’s Paper on Soundness.”, in [William] Percivall, [William] Youatt, editors, The Veterinarian, volume II, number 24, London: […] Compton and Ritchie, […] [for] Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, […], published December 1829, →OCLC, page 509:
text: The witches that dance on the Brocken on Valpurgis Eve would be spoken of in a different spirit from the village hag who spavins the horse and curdles the milk.
ref: 1867, John Hill Burton, “Heathendom”, in The History of Scotland from Agricola’s Invasion to the Revolution of 1688, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 224:
text: And oh! Onesiphorus, the old brown mare / Is spavining for love, as also we; […]
ref: 1884 February 23, “Astray from San Rafael” [pseudonym], “Dudetic Leap Year”, in The Wasp, volume XII, number 8, San Francisco, Calif.: E[dward] C[reamor] Macfarlane & Co., →OCLC, stanza 4, page 11, column 1:
text: The plaintiff introduced evidence tending to prove that the horse was spavined, and that Kuntzman had warranted the soundness of the horse. The fourth exception on the part of the defendant and the plaintiff in error was to the rejection of the evidence that the horse was not spavined while in Weaver's stable, some two months after the sale.
ref: 1886, A[braham] C[lark] Freeman, “Kuntzman v. Weaver”, in The American Decisions […], volume LIX, San Francisco, Calif.: Bancroft-Whitney Co. […], →OCLC, page 740:
text: In order to obviate the straining, spavining, and weakness of back, to which horses are subject, caused by the effort of starting heavy cars, Mr. Henry P. Holt designed a tramcar starting gear, patented in May, 1879, […]
ref: 1894, D[aniel] Kinnear Clark, “Resistance to Traction on Tramways”, in Tramways: Their Construction and Working […], 2nd edition, London: Crosby Lockwood and Son […], →OCLC, page 402:
topics: biology
farriery
hobbies
horses
lifestyle
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
pets
sciences
sports
veterinary
zoology
glosses: To cause (a horse or its leg) to have spavin (noun sense 1.2).
examples: text: [Fridtjof] Nansen, having accomplished nearly as much as these Americans without spavining his health or business instincts, published a book, negotiated with the Major, got out three-sheet posters of himself in modest costume and self-effacing language, and is now able to address large, long-eared and appreciative audiences at the rate of twenty dollars a minute.
ref: 1897 December 2, Joseph Smith, “The Fakir and the Milch Cow”, in Life, volume XXX, number 780, New York, N.Y.: Life Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 465, columns 2–3:
text: It [a dinghy] should be as large and sturdy as means of hoisting aboard and securing will permit, but light and handy enough to launch without spavining the mate's back.
ref: 1983 April, Carleton Mitchell, “Cruising with Carleton Mitchell: The Key to Carefree Cruising”, in Roy Attaway, editor, Boating, volume 52, number 4, New York, N.Y.: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 28, column 1:
glosses: To impair or injure (someone or something).