Spunge vs Spange - What's the difference?
spunge | spange |
(US) to beg, particularly using the phrase “spare change?”
*
As nouns the difference between spunge and spange
is that spunge is (obsolete) a sponge while spange is clasp, bracelet, brooch.As a verb spunge
is (obsolete) to sponge.spange
English
Verb
Usage notes
Often used to refer to one’s own activities, without pejorative sense. Compare spanger, often used pejoratively to refer to others.Quotations
* 1996 , Tim “Salvage”, quoted in Ian Fisher, “Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold.”“Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold,” Ian Fisher, December 8, 1996, The New York Times *: I don’t spange much because I really don’t like doing it. I eat out of trash cans a lot. * 2009 , Kelly Myers, 33, quoted in Joe Deegan, “
Nowhere To Go]”, San Diego Reader[http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2009/oct/14/city-light-2/ Nowhere To Go, by Joe Deegan, San Diego Reader, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009 *: Then my father would send all us kids out to ‘spange ’ [beg for spare change]. You could sometimes make $50 a day by spanging. Other days you might make a dollar.
Derived terms
* spanger * spangingReferences
Word Watch, The Atlantic, April 1997, by Anne H. Soukhanov, executive editor of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition.