• Spar

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /spɑː/
    • US IPA: /spɑɹ/, spɑɹ, spÉ‘Ëž
    • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)
    • Homophones: spa in non-rhotic accents

    Origin 1

    From Middle English sparre ("spar, rafter, beam") (noun), sparren ("to close, bar") (verb), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sparrô ("stake, beam"), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- ("beam, log"). Compare Dutch spar ("balk"), German Sparren ("rafter, spar"), Danish sparre ("spar"), Albanian shparr, shpardh ("kind of oak"). Perhaps also compare spear, park.

    Full definition of spar

    Noun

    spar

    (plural spars)
    1. A rafter of a roof.
    2. A thick pole or piece of wood.
    3. (obsolete) A bar of wood used to fasten a door.
      • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.11:The Prince staid not his aunswere to devize,
        But, opening streight the Sparre, forth to him came ….
    4. (nautical) A general term denoting any linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff.
    5. (aeronautics) A beam-like structural member that supports ribs in an aircraft wing or other airfoil.

    Verb

    1. (obsolete or dialectal) to bolt, bar.
    2. (transitive) To supply or equip (a vessel) with spars.

    Origin 2

    From Middle English sparren ("to thrust or strike rapidly"), from Old English sperran, spirran, spyrran ("to strike, strike out at, spar"), related to Low German sparre ("a struggling, striving"), German sich sperren ("to struggle, resist, oppose"), Icelandic sperrask ("to kick out at, thrust, struggle").

    Verb

    1. To fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat.
      • 2012, April 15, Phil McNulty, Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea, After early sparring, Spurs started to take control as the interval approached and twice came close to taking the lead. Terry blocked Rafael van der Vaart's header on the line and the same player saw his cross strike the post after Adebayor was unable to apply a touch.
    2. To strike with the feet or spurs, as cocks do.
    3. To contest in words; to wrangle.

    Origin 3

    From Middle Low German spar, sper ("spar"); or from a backformation of sparstone ("spar"), from Middle English sparston ("gypsum, chalk"), from Old English spærstān ("gypsum"). Related to German Sparkalk ("plaster"), Old English spæren ("of plaster, of mortar").

    Noun

    spar

    (plural spars)
    1. (mineralogy) any of various microcrystalline minerals, of light, translucent, or transparent blee, which are easily cleft
    2. (mineralogy) any crystal with no readily discernible faces.

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