Spell vs Span - What's the difference?
spell | span |
(obsolete) Speech, discourse.
Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
(obsolete) To speak, to declaim.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.ii:
(obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
* T. Warton
To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
* Dryden
* Sir G. Buck
(obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
* 1851 , :
To be able to write or say the letters that form words.
Of letters: to compose (a word).
* {{quote-book, year=2008, author=Helen Fryer, title=The Esperanto Teacher
, isbn=9780554320076, page=13, publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC, passage=In Esperanto each letter has only one sound, and each sound is represented in only one way. The words are pronounced exactly as spelt , every letter being sounded.}}
(figuratively) To indicate that (some event) will occur.
* 2003 , U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation , ISBN 1422334120:
To constitute; to measure.
* Fuller
To work in place of (someone).
To rest (someone or something).
A shift (of work); a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
A period of (work or other activity).
*
, title= * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
, title= An indefinite period of time (usually with some qualifying word).
* 1975 , (Bob Dylan), (Tangled Up in Blue)
A period of rest; time off.
(US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.
(cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.
The space from the thumb to the end of the little finger when extended; nine inches; eighth of a fathom.
Hence, a small space or a brief portion of time.
* Alexander Pope
* Farquhar
* 2007 . Zerzan, John. Silence .
The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
(nautical) A rope having its ends made fast so that a purchase can be hooked to the bight; also, a rope made fast in the center so that both ends can be used.
(obsolete) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.
(mathematics) the space of all linear combinations of something
To traverse the distance between.
To cover or extend over an area or time period.
* Prescott
To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.
* Bible, Isa. xiviii. 13
(mathematics) to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations
(intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.
(archaic, nonstandard) (spin)
*
* '>citation
*:a giant pick-up truck span out of control during a stunt show in a Dutch town, killing three people
In obsolete terms the difference between spell and span
is that spell is to tell; to relate; to teach while span is a pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.As an acronym SPAN is
suicide Prevention Advocacy Network.spell
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) spel, spellian, spelian, from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- He cast a spell to cure warts.
- under a spell
Synonyms
* (words or formula supposed to have magical powers) cantrip, incantation * (magical effect induced by an incantation or formula) cantripVerb
(en verb)- O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell ?
- Might I that legend find, / By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes.
- Spelled with words of power.
- He was much spelled with Eleanor Talbot.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
- "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.
- I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.
- The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.
citation
- This spells trouble.
- Please spell it out for me.
- When we get elected, for instance, we get one of these, and we are pretty much told what is in it, and it is our responsibility to read it and understand it, and if we do not, the Ethics Committee, we can call them any time of day and ask them to spell it out for us
- the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect
Derived terms
* speller * spelling * spelloSynonyms
* (to indicate that some event will occur) forebode; mean; signify * (to work in place of someone else) relieve * (to compose a word) (informal) compriseEtymology 3
Origin uncertain; perhaps a form of (speld).Etymology 4
From (etyl) spelen, from (etyl) .Verb
- to spell the helmsman
- They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.
Noun
(en noun)Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=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.}}
Liverpool 0-1 West Brom, passage=Despite his ill-fated spell at Anfield, he received a warm reception from the same Liverpool fans he struggled to win over before being sacked midway through last season.}}
- I had a job in the great North Woods
- Workin' as a cook for a spell .
- But I never did like it all that much
- And one day the ax just fell.
Derived terms
* dry spell * set a spellQuotations
* (English Citations of "spell")Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----span
English
Etymology 1
(etyl) spannNoun
(en noun)- Yet not to earth's contracted span / Thy goodness let me bound.
- Life's but a span ; I'll every inch enjoy.
- The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans ,
Etymology 2
Old English spannanVerb
(spann)- The suspension bridge spanned the canyon as tenuously as one could imagine.
- The parking lot spans three acres.
- The novel spans three centuries.
- World record! 5 GHz WiFi connection spans 189 miles. [http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/27/world-record-5ghz-wifi-connection-spans-189-miles/]
- The rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry.
- to span''' a space or distance; to '''span a cylinder
- My right hand hath spanned the heavens.