Spaten

See also: späten

German

Etymology

The word was originally restricted to Low and Central German: from Middle High German spade, spate and Middle Low German spade, both from Old Saxon spado (possibly also Old High German *spato), from Proto-Germanic *spadô, from Proto-Indo-European *sph₂-dʰ-. Due to its northern origin the form has undergone open-syllable lengthening before -t- (which was generally blocked in Upper German). Cognate to English spade; see there for further cognates.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃpaːt(ə)n/

• Audio

  (file)

• Homophones: sparten (many speakers), Sparten (some speakers)

Noun

Spaten m (strong, genitive Spatens, plural Spaten)

1. spade

Declension

Declension of Spaten [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Spaten	die	Spaten
genitive	eines	des	Spatens	der	Spaten
dative	einem	dem	Spaten	den	Spaten
accusative	einen	den	Spaten	die	Spaten

Further reading

• “Spaten” in Duden online
• “Spaten” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache