English
spell
see also: Spell
Pronunciation Etymology 1

From Middle English spell, spel, from Old English spell, from Proto-Germanic *spellą, from Proto-Indo-European *spel- or from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- with the s-mobile prefix.

Noun

spell (plural spells)

  1. Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers. [from 16th c.]
    Synonyms: cantrip, incantation
    He cast a spell to cure warts.
  2. A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula. [from 16th c.]
    Synonyms: cantrip
    under a spell
    • 2020, Deftones, The Spell of Mathematics:
      I believe your love has placed its spell on me
  3. (obsolete) Speech, discourse. [8th–15th c.]
Translations Translations Verb

spell (spells, present participle spelling; simple past and past participle spelled)

  1. To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
    • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene iii], page 115 ↗, column 2:
      Vnchaine your spirits now with spelling Charmes,
    • 1647, George Buck, The History and Life and Reigne of Richard the Third‎, London, Book 4, p. 116:
      […] although the Kings Jealousie was thus particular to her, his Affection was as general to others […] Above all, for a time he was much speld with Elianor Talbot […]
    • 1697, John Dryden (translator), Georgics, Book 3 in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 109, lines 444-446,
      This, gather’d in the Planetary Hour,
      With noxious Weeds, and spell’d with Words of pow’r
      Dire Stepdames in the Magick Bowl infuse;
Translations Etymology 2

From Middle English spellen, from Anglo-Norman espeler, espeleir, Old French espeller, espeler (compare Modern French épeler), from Frankish *spelōn, merged with native Old English spellian, both eventually from Proto-Germanic *spellōną.

Verb

spell (spells, present participle spelling; simple past and past participle spelled)

  1. (intransitive, transitive, sometimes with “out”) To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word. [from 16th c.]
    I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort. [from 14th c.]
  3. (transitive) Of letters: to compose (a word). [from 19th c.]
    The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.
  4. (transitive, figuratively, with “out”) To clarify; to explain in detail. [from 20th c.]
    Please spell it out for me.
  5. (transitive) To indicate that (some event) will occur; typically followed by a single-word noun. [from 19th c.]
    This spells trouble.
  6. To constitute; to measure.
    • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC ↗:
      the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect
  7. (obsolete) To speak, to declaim. [9th]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
      O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell?
  8. (obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
    • 1770, Thomas Warton, “Ode on the Approach of Summer” in A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes, London: G. Pearch, Volume 1, p. 278,
      As thro’ the caverns dim I wind,
      Might I that legend find,
      By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes,
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Etymology 3

From Middle English spelen, from Old English spelian, akin to Middle English spale, Old English spala.

Verb

spell (spells, present participle spelling; simple past and past participle spelled)

  1. (transitive) To work in place of (someone).
    to spell the helmsman
  2. (transitive) To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.
    They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.
  3. (intransitive, colloquial) To rest from work for a time.
Translations Noun

spell (plural spells)

  1. A shift (of work); (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour. [from 16th c.]
  2. (informal) A definite period (of work or other activity). [from 18th c.]
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗:
      A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.
  3. (colloquial) An indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance. [from 18th c.]
  4. A period of rest; time off. [from 19th c.]
  5. (colloquial, US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc. [from 19th c.]
  6. (cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler. [from 20th c.]
Translations Translations Etymology 4

From Middle English spele, from Old Norse.

Noun

spell (plural spells)

  1. (dialectal) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.
    • 1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe, →OCLC ↗; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761, →OCLC ↗:
      To swadle a bowe much about wyth bandes, verye seldome dothe anye good, excepte it be to kepe downe a spel in the backe.
  2. The wooden bat in the game of trap ball, or knurr and spell.
Spell
Etymology

From the German - surname, perhaps related to Speller.

Proper noun
  1. Surname.


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