sparra

See also: sparrà, and spärra

English

Etymology

Pronunciation spelling of sparrow, representing Cockney English.

Noun

sparra (plural sparras)

1. (London, chiefly Cockney) A sparrow.
   • 2008, Jon Wise, “Double trouble as soap won't wash”, in People:

     Jason dons a screwed-up accent that Madonna would be proud of. While Martine, loved for being a cockney sparra, unfortunately goes posh.

   • 1859, Samuel Carter Hall, The book of the Thames: from its rise to its fall, page 351:

     "Ah ! ah ! the fun was, one of the company said it was as like a sparra as one pea is like another; how I did laugh to myself, for she grew quite offended like, and insisted that this was a light brown bird, but that a sparra was next to black"

Anagrams

• Parras

Scots

Alternative forms

• spur, spug, spuggie, speug

Noun

sparra (plural sparras)

1. sparrow

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English spar. First attested in 1924.

English word of uncertain origin. Possibly derived from Old Norse sperrask (“to kick out”). However, possibly instead derived from Middle French esparer (“to kick”), from old Italian sparare (“to fling”), from Latin exparare, from ex- + parare (“to prepare”). See also English parry.

Verb

sparra (present sparrar, preterite sparrade, supine sparrat, imperative sparra)

1. To spar with someone (when training for boxing or martial arts).

Conjugation

Conjugation of sparra (weak)

	Active		Passive
Infinitive	sparra		sparras
Supine	sparrat		sparrats
Imperative	sparra		—
Imper. plural1	sparren		—
	Present	Past	Present	Past
Indicative	sparrar	sparrade	sparras	sparrades
Ind. plural1	sparra	sparrade	sparras	sparrades
Subjunctive2	sparre	sparrade	sparres	sparrades
	Participles
Present participle	sparrande
Past participle	sparrad
1 Archaic. 2 Dated. See the appendix on Swedish verbs.

Related terms

• sparring

Anagrams

• rapars, raspar, sparar