spean

See also: Spean

English

Alternative forms

• spane (Scotland)
• spene, speen (Kent)
• spaine, speane (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spiːn/
• Rhymes: -iːn

Etymology 1

From Middle English *spene, *spane, from Old English spane, spanu (“teat”), from Proto-West Germanic *spanu, *spenu, from Proto-Germanic *spenô (“nipple”), from Proto-Indo-European *pstḗn (“breast; teat”). Cognate with West Frisian spien (“nipple”), Dutch speen (“nipple”), Danish spene (“teat”), Swedish spene (“teat, nipple, dug”), Icelandic speni (“teat”).

Alternatively a borrowing from Dutch speen (“nipple, teat”), from the same Proto-Germanic origin as above.

Noun

spean (plural speans)

1. (archaic or dialectal) A teat or nipple of a cow.
   • [1780?], Nicholas Coxe, The Huntſman. Containing the Best Methods of Sport, for Courſing with Greyhounds, and Hunting All Kinds of Chases in England, […] , London: J. Dixwell, page 50:

     The Genital part is all nervy; the Tail ſmall; and the Hind hath Udders betwixt her Thighs, with four Speans or Tets, like a Cow.

Etymology 2

From Middle English spanen (“to wean”); see spane.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spiːn/

Verb

spean (third-person singular simple present speans, present participle speaning, simple past and past participle speaned)

1. Archaic form of spane.
   • 1899, Colville, Vernacular, page 15,

     Beginning life as a grice, the pig when speaned became a shot.

Anagrams

• Aspen, NAPEs, Panes, Snape, aspen, napes, neaps, panes, peans, snape, sneap, spane