spit
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /spɪt/
rhymes: -ɪt
Forms: form: spits
Etymology: The verb is from Middle English spē̆ten, spete (“to spit (blood, phlegm, saliva, venom, etc.); of a fire: to emit sparks”), from Old English spǣtan (“to spit; to squirt”); or from Middle English spit, spitte, spitten (“to spit (blood, phlegm, saliva, venom, etc.); of a fire: to emit sparks”), from Old English spittan, spyttan (“to spit”), both from Proto-Germanic, from Proto-Indo-European *sp(y)ēw, *spyū, ultimately imitative; compare Middle English spitelen (“to spit out, expectorate”) and English spew. The English word is cognate with Danish spytte (“to spit”), North Frisian spütte, Norwegian spytte (“to spit”), Swedish spotta (“to spit”), Old Norse spýta (Faroese spýta (“to spit”), Icelandic spýta (“to spit”)).
The noun is derived from the verb; compare Danish spyt (“spit”), Middle English spit, spytte (“saliva, spittle, sputum”), spet (“saliva, spittle”), spē̆tel (“saliva, spittle”), North Frisian spiit.
Senses: examples: text: There was spit all over the washbasin.
text: Sometimes your body doesn't make as much spit as it needs. When you sleep, your salivary glands take a bit of a snooze too. You're still making spit, but not as much. This is why your mouth feels dry when you wake up.
ref: 2010, Connie Colwell Miller, “How Spit Happens”, in The Slimy Book of Spit (The Amazingly Gross Human Body), Mankato, Minn.: Edge Books, Capstone Press, →ISBN, page 19:
text: [T]hey marked their truce by each of them, Aesir and Vanir alike, one by one spitting into a vat. As their spit mingled, so was their agreement made binding.
ref: 2017, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Bloomsbury Publishing, page 108:
synonyms: expectoration
spittle
glosses: Saliva, especially when expectorated.
examples: text: It was early winter in the southern continent, a season of rain and winds and mud, and indeed coals in a nearby brazier hissed with a few spits of rain.
ref: 2015, Col Buchanan, “Return of the King”, in The Black Dream, London: Tor Books, →ISBN:
glosses: An instance of spitting; specifically, a light fall of rain or snow.
examples: text: […] according to some of the elders of the village, young Philip was the “very spit” of his father, as they once remembered him […]
ref: 1840, The Court Magazine & Monthly Critic and Lady's Magazine, page 405:
text: Lots of people claimed she was the image of her father (about the same number who saw her as the dead spit of her mother), which was a little disconcerting.
ref: 2011, Kate Konopicky, “Worn-Out Genes”, in A Woman Of No Importance: A Tenderly Observed, Ruthlessly Honest and Hilariously Funny Memoir about the Joys and Horrors of Motherhood, Ebury Publishing:
glosses: A person who exactly resembles someone else (usually in set phrases; see spitting image).
glosses: Synonym of slam (“card game”).
synonyms: word: slam
extra: card game
Derived terms: cough and a spit
cuckoo spit
dummy spit
frog spit
spit and baling wire
spit and image
spit and polish
spit-and-sawdust
spit and vinegar
spitball
spit bath
spit brothers
spit-cup
spit curl
spit guard
spit hood
spit mask
spit shine
spitshine
spit take
spittoon
spit-up
spit wad
toad-spit
very spit of