▪ I. spane, n.
[a. ON. spán-n, Du. spaan, or G. span († spane), = OE. spón chip: see spoon n.]
A chip or slip of wood.
| 1602 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 146 Spygotts and fawset and for wood spanes, iij{supd}. 1891 Baring-Gould Urith I. vii. 105 At the fire-breast burnt, what was called a ‘spane’, that is, a slip of deal steeped in resin, which lighted the housewife at her operations at the fire. |
▪ II. spane, v. north. and Sc.
(speɪn)
Also 4 spone, 5–7 spayn, 6, 8–9 spain, 9 spaan, span. See also spean v.
[ad. OF. espanir or MDu. and MLG. spanen (MLG. also sponen), app. related to OE. spana, spona, G. dial. span, teat: cf. spean n.]
1. trans. To wean (an infant, lamb, etc.). Also fig. and in fig. context.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 3018 Quen he [Isaac] was spaned [Fairf. sponed] fra þe pap, His fader..made a fest. a 1340 Hampole Psalter cxxx. 4 As a childe þat has nede to be on his modur kne and fostird wiþ hur mylke perisch if he be wenyd [v.r. spaned] & takyn fro mylke. c 1440 Alph. Tales 107 A womman when sho will spane hur child. 1483 Cath. Angl. 351/1 To Spayn (A. Spane), ablactare. 1509 in Mem. Fountains (Surtees) 235, xl yews with their lames to [= until] they be spaned. 1549 D. Monro in Macfarlane's Geogr. Collect. (S.H.S.) III. 293 The Lambes of that end of the countrey uses to be fed, and spained fra the ȝowes. 1570 Levins Manip. 19 To spane, weane, ablactare, depellere. 1653 in Laing Lindores Abbey (1876) 224 Their⁓after the chyld was spayned. 1674 Ray N. Co. Words 44 To Spane a Child; to wean it. [Hence in Bailey and later Dicts.] 1781– in various northern and Sc. dial. glossaries and texts. 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 12 The sinfu' bodies o' the Elie Were spain'd frae image-worship hailly. 1896 Pall Mall Mag. Apr. 515 To help the old shepherd in ‘spaning’ the lambs. |
† b. Sc. To suspend, as a punishment. Obs.
| 1516 [see spaning vbl. n.]. 1529 Extr. Burgh Rec. Edinb. (1871) 5 To..spane thame fra the operatione for yer and day. |
2. intr. Of corn: To begin to take root and cast off the seed.
Cf. WFlem. spanen, spenen, spennen, to set (of fruit).
| [1828 Carr Craven Gloss., Corn is said to be in spane or spaan, when it just begins to shoot its roots or to detach itself from the parent grain.] 1843 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. IV. i. 186 That state of transition, in which it cannot be said whether it derives its food from the seed, the soil, or the atmosphere (the state in which it is commonly said to be ‘spaining’). 1863 Mrs. Toogood Yorksh. Dial. (MS.), The corn is looking yellow; it is just beginning to spane. |
Hence ˈspaned ppl. a. Also † ˈspaneling, a weaned pig or other animal.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxv. 24 My new spanit howffing fra the sowk. 1560 Knaresb. Wills (Surtees) I. 86 A spaned calf. 1563 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees, 1835) 210, xiij spaned calves. 1577 Ibid. 417, ij sues, iiijor spainlings, & one boare. 1894 P. H. Hunter J. Inwick xx. 251 I'll süne hae to stay my stamack wi' sappy meat, like a spained wean. |
▪ III. spane
obs. Sc. pa. tense of spin v.