Word Origin & History
"name the letters of," O.E. spellian "to tell, speak," infl. by O.Fr. espeller "declare, spell," from Frank. *spellon "to tell;" both O.E. and Frank. from P.Gmc. *spellan (cf. O.H.G. spellon "to tell," O.N. spjalla, Goth. spillon "to talk, tell"), from PIE *spel- "to say aloud, recite." Meaning "write
or say the letters of a word" is c.1400, from notion of "read letter by letter, read with difficulty" (c.1300). Spell out "explain step-by-step" is first recorded 1940, Amer.Eng. Spelling bee is from 1878 (earlier simply spelling, 1860).
"incantation, charm," O.E. spell "story, speech," from P.Gmc. *spellan (cf. O.N. spjall, O.H.G. spel, Goth. spill "report, discourse, tale;" Ger. Beispiel "example;" see spell
(v.1)). Meaning "set of words with magical powers, incantation, charm" first recorded 1579. Spellbound
is attested from 1799, from bound
"The term 'spell' is generally used for magical procedures which cause harm, or force people to do something against their will -- unlike charms for healing, protection, etc." ["Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore"]
"work in place of (another)," O.E. spelian "to take the place of," related to gespelia "substitute," of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to spilian "to play" (see spiel
). The noun meaning "indefinite period of time" first recorded 1706.
O.E. spelt, perhaps an early borrowing from L.L. spelta "spelt" (c.400, noted as a foreign word), which is perhaps ult. from PIE base *spel- "to split, to break off" (probably in ref. to the splitting of its husks in threshing), which is related to the root of flint
. The word
had little currency in Eng., and its history is discontinuous. Widespread in Romanic languages (cf. It. spelta, Sp. espelta, O.Fr. spelte, Mod.Fr. épeautre). The word also is widespread in Gmc. (cf. O.H.G. spelta, Ger. Spelt), and a Gmc. language is perhaps the source of the L.L. word.