Sporn

See also: sporn

German

Etymology

From Middle High German spore, from Old High German sporo, from Proto-West Germanic *sporō, from Proto-Germanic *spurô.

Cognate with Dutch spoor, English spur. The final -n of the modern form is from the Middle High German inflected forms. The development of a singular in -n with plural in -en is unique, though somewhat similar to that in Herr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃpɔrn/, [ʃpɔʁn], [ʃpɔɐ̯n], [ʃpɔːn]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Sporn m (strong, genitive Sporns or Spornes, plural Sporen or Sporne)

1. spur

Usage notes

• In the literal sense “implement for prodding a horse”, the plural is almost always Sporen. The form Sporne is used in some derived senses and compounds.

Declension

Declension of Sporn [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Sporn	die	Sporen, Sporne
genitive	eines	des	Sporns, Spornes	der	Sporen, Sporne
dative	einem	dem	Sporn, Sporne1	den	Sporen, Spornen
accusative	einen	den	Sporn	die	Sporen, Sporne

¹Now rare, see notes.

Derived terms

• anspornen
• Felssporn, Hahnensporn, Heißsporn, Lerchensporn, Rammsporn, Rittersporn

Further reading

• “Sporn” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Sporn” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Sporn” in Duden online
• “Sporn” in OpenThesaurus.de
• Sporn on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de