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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL4 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Span”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
SpanEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text
* As a Slovene surname, from župan (“head of a district”), from župa (“district”); compare Zupan. * As a German surname, variant of Spahn; also Spann. * As a Jewish surname from Span (“chip”) (probably through Yiddish).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗spanEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend-der. Proto-Germanic *spannō Old English spann Middle English spanne English span From Middle English spanne, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spannō (“span, handbreadth”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pend- (“to stretch”). Cognate with Dutch span, spanne, German Spanne. The sense “pair of horses” is probably from Old English ġespan, ġespann (“a joining; a fastening together; clasp; yoke”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?]. Cognate with Dutch gespan, German Gespann.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗spanEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
From Middle English spannen, from Old English spannan, from Proto-Germanic *spannaną (“to stretch, span”). Cognate with German spannen, Dutch spannen.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗spanEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
From Middle English span, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spann, first and third person singular preterit indicative of Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
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Chambers (1908)
1908- SpanEnglish · e-38700-2570
Span, span, n. the space from the end of the thumb to the end of the little-finger when the fingers are extended: nine inches: the spread of an arch between its abutments: a space of time, the full duration of anything:
Read the full source record → - SpanEnglish · e-38700-2571
Span, span, n. a yoke of horses or oxen. [Borrowed from Dut.; from the same root as above word.]
Read the full source record → - SpanEnglish · e-38700-2572
Span, span, adv. wholly—in Span′-new, Spick′-and-span.
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