spait

Scots

Etymology

Etymology uncertain; possibly related to English spatter and Dutch spatten (“to spatter, splash”),[1] possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sp(y)ēw, *spyū (whence English spit (“to evacuate (saliva or another substance) from the mouth, etc.”)),[2] which is imitative of spitting.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): [spet]

Noun

spait (plural spaits)

  1. (Middle Scots, archaic) spate
    • 1902, G. Gregory Smith, “Prologue to Aen. VII”, in Specimens of Middle Scots, William Blackwood and Sons, page 124:
      Reweris rane reid one spait with watteir broun […]
    • 1820 January, “The Marmaiden of Clyde”, in The Scots Magazine, and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany‎, volume VI, number 1, page 423:
      A spait the river rase
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

References
  1. “spate, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
  2. John Ayto (1990) Dictionary of Word Origins, New York, N.Y.: Arcade Publishing, →ISBN.

Further reading
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