spar

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• UK: /spɑː/
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• Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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• US: /spɑɹ/
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• US: [spɑɹ]
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• US: [spɑ˞]
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• rhymes with -ɑː(ɹ)
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• homophone: spa (non-rhotic)
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• CMU ARPABET: S P AA1 R Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
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From Middle English sparre (“spar, rafter, beam”) (noun), sparren (“to close, bar”) (verb), from Middle Dutch sparre or Middle Low German Sparre, all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sparrô (“stake, beam”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- (“beam, log”). Compare Dutch spar (“balk”), German Sparren (“rafter, spar”), Danish sparre (“spar”), Albanian shparr, shpardh (“kind of oak”). Perhaps also compare spear.

From Middle English sparren (“to dart out; to strike out”), from Old English sperran, spirran, spyrran (“to strike, strike out at, spar”), related to Low German sparre (“a struggling, striving”), German sich sperren (“to struggle, resist, oppose”), Icelandic sperrast (“to kick out at, thrust, struggle”). The slang sense of friend is probably from the phrase sparring partner under the influence of the similar slang words par and star.

Etymology tree Middle Low German sparder. Old English spærstān Middle English sparston English sparstonebf. English spar From Middle Low German spar, sper (“spar”); or from a backformation of sparstone (“spar”), from Middle English sparston (“gypsum, chalk”), from Old English spærstān (“gypsum”). Related to German Sparkalk (“plaster”), Old English spæren (“of plaster, of mortar”).

52 source translations are retained for this English entry.

• Bulgarian: як прът (jak prǎt) — thick pole
• Bulgarian: греда (greda) — thick pole
• Finnish: parru — thick pole
• Māori: rākau whakapakoko — thick pole
• Middle English: sparre — thick pole
• Persian: شاهتیر (šāhtir) — thick pole
• Russian: столб (stolb) — thick pole
• Spanish: poste — thick pole
• Ottoman Turkish: صیریق (sırık) — thick pole
• Ottoman Turkish: كوندر (günder, gönder) — thick pole
• Czech: závora — bar to fasten door
• Finnish: telki — bar to fasten door
• Spanish: tranca — bar to fasten door
• Bulgarian: ранго́ут (rangóut) — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Czech: ráhno — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Czech: žerď — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Dutch: rondhout — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Finnish: pyöröpuu — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• German: Spiere — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• German: Rundholz — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Irish: sparra — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Māori: rākau whakapakoko — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Marshallese: buum̧ — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Persian: دکل (dakal) — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Russian: ранго́ут (rangóut) — nautical: linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff
• Finnish: siipisalko — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• French: longeron — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• German: Holm — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• German: Flügelholm — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• Irish: croscheann sciatháin — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• Russian: лонжеро́н крыла́ (lonžerón krylá) — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• Spanish: larguero — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• Swedish: balk — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• Swedish: vingbalk — aeronautics: beam-like structural member
• Catalan: espat — any crystal with readily discernible faces
• Finnish: sälpä — any crystal with readily discernible faces
• French: spath — any crystal with readily discernible faces
• German: Spat — any crystal with readily discernible faces
• Irish: sparra — any crystal with readily discernible faces
• Russian: шпат (špat) — any crystal with readily discernible faces
• Spanish: espato — any crystal with readily discernible faces
• Czech: trénovat — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Czech: cvičit se — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Dutch: sparren — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Finnish: sparrata — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Irish: speáráil — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Italian: allenarsi al combattimento — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Russian: спарринговать (sparringovatʹ) — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Russian: вести тренировочный бой (trenirovočnyj) — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Swedish: sparra — to fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat
• Czech: přít se — to argue
• Czech: dohadovat se — to argue