spacer

English

Etymology

From space +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspeɪsə(ɹ)/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪsə(ɹ)

Noun

spacer (plural spacers)

1. (science fiction) A person who works or lives in space.
   • 1954, Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel:

     It was the futile throwing back in the face of the Spacers their most keenly felt insult: their insistence on considering the natives of Earth as disgustingly diseased.

   • 2014 [1993], Bruce Coville, Aliens Ate My Homework‎^[1], page 134:

     "How do I know I can trust you?" asked BKR.
     Grakker hesitated. "Spacer's oath," he said at last.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Citadel:

     Shepard: What are you running for?
     Charles Saracino: I'm seeking one of the five spacer seats in Parliament. They have certain baroque conditions for a citizen to be able to vote for them.
     Charles Saracino: You have to spend more than six months a year in space. But you can't have stayed in any one settled system for more than a month.

   • 2017, A.K. Brown, Humans on the Menu (Champagne Universe Series: Book 2), page 20:

     He was thankful that he still had his suit on when the ship had a catastrophic decompression, a spacer's worst nightmare.

2. An object inserted to hold a space open in a row of items, e.g. beads or printed type.
3. A bushing.
4. (slang) A forgetful person; one who spaces out.
5. (medicine) A type of add-on device used by an asthmatic person to increase the effectiveness of a metered-dose inhaler.
6. (historical) An instrument for reversing a telegraphic current, especially in a marine cable, to increase the speed of transmission.

Derived terms

• intergenic spacer
• spacer DNA

 

Translations

an object

• Bulgarian: ограничител (bg) m (ograničitel)
• French: entretoise (fr) f
• Tagalog: pamatlang

Anagrams

• CASREP, Casper, Pacers, Scaper, capers, crapes, e-scrap, escarp, pacers, parsec, recaps, scaper, scrape, secpar

Polish

Etymology

Deverbal from spacerować.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈspa.t͡sɛr/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -at͡sɛr
• Syllabification: spa‧cer

Noun

spacer m inan (diminutive spacerek)

1. stroll, walk (wandering on foot; idle and leisurely walk)

   Synonym: przechadzka

Declension

Declension of spacer

	singular	plural
nominative	spacer	spacery
genitive	spaceru	spacerów
dative	spacerowi	spacerom
accusative	spacer	spacery
instrumental	spacerem	spacerami
locative	spacerze	spacerach
vocative	spacerze	spacery

Derived terms

adjective

• spacerowy

 

nouns

• spacerniak
• spacernik
• spacerowicz
• spacerowiczka
• spacerownik
• spacerówka

 

Related terms

verb

• spacerować impf

 

Further reading

• spacer in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• spacer in Polish dictionaries at PWN