spire
English
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Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. enPR: spīr, spīʹər, IPA(key): /spaɪə/, /ˈspaɪə/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. enPR: spīr, spīʹər, IPA(key): /spaɪɹ/, /ˈspaɪɚ/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
Etymology 1
From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.
Noun
spire (plural spires)
- (now rare) The stalk or stem of a plant. [from 10th c.]
- A young shoot of a plant; a spear. [from 14th c.]
- 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 12
- Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire, and was breaking it to get the seeds.
- 1913, D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 12
- Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
- A sharp or tapering point. [from 16th c.]
- 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict[1]:
- A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.
- A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof. [from 16th c.]
- The spire of the church rose high above the town.
- The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit. [from 17th c.]
- Shakespeare
- the spire and top of praises
- Shakespeare
- (mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.
Translations
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Verb
Lua error in Module:en-headword at line 1118: Legacy parameter 1=STEM no longer supported, just use 'en-verb' without params
- (of a seed, plant etc.) to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate. [from 14th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.5:
- In gentle Ladies breste and bounteous race / Of woman kind it fayrest Flowre doth spyre, / And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desyre.
- Mortimer
- It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.5:
- To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally. [from 14th c.]
- (transitive) To furnish with a spire.
Etymology 2
From Old French spirer, and its source, Latin spīrō (“to breathe”).
Verb
Lua error in Module:en-headword at line 1118: Legacy parameter 1=STEM no longer supported, just use 'en-verb' without params
- (intransitive, obsolete) To breathe. [14th-16th c.]
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shenstone to this entry?)
Etymology 3
From Middle French spire.
Noun
spire (plural spires)
- One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil. [from 16th c.]
- A spiral. [from 17th c.]
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
- (geometry) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.
Anagrams
French
Etymology
From Latin spira, from Ancient Greek σπεῖρα (speîra).
Pronunciation
Noun
spire f (plural spires)
- turn (of a spiral)
Further reading
- “spire”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams
Italian
Noun
spira f
Anagrams
Middle English
Noun
spire
- Alternative form of spere (“sphere”)
Norwegian Bokmål
Etymology
From Old Norse spíra (stem, pipe; little tree)
Noun
spire f or m (definite singular spira or spiren, indefinite plural spirer, definite plural spirene)
Verb
spire (present tense spirer, past tense spirte, past participle spirt)
- to sprout
References
- “spire” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Venetian
Noun
spire
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/aɪə(ɹ)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms inherited from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with rare senses
- English terms with quotations
- en:Mining
- English transitive verbs
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English intransitive verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Requests for quotations/Shenstone
- English terms derived from Middle French
- Requests for quotations/Dryden
- en:Geometry
- French terms derived from Latin
- French terms derived from Ancient Greek
- French 1-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French feminine nouns
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian noun plural forms
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Old Norse
- Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål entries with topic categories using raw markup
- Norwegian Bokmål feminine nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål masculine nouns
- Norwegian Bokmål nouns with multiple genders
- Norwegian Bokmål verbs
- nb:Botany
- Venetian non-lemma forms
- Venetian noun plural forms