Span

See also: Appendix:Variations of "span"

English

Etymology

• As a Slovene surname, from župan (“head of a district”), from župa (“district”); compare Zupan.
• As a German surname, variant of Spahn; also Spann.
• As a Jewish surname from Span (“chip”) (probably through Yiddish).

Proper noun

Span (plural Spans)

1. A surname.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Span”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.
• Forebears

German

Etymology

From Middle High German spān, from Old High German spān (“chip of wood, shaving”), from Proto-West Germanic *spānu (“chip, shaving”). Cognate with Old English spōn (“piece of wood, chip”). More at spoon.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃpaːn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːn

Noun

Span m (strong, genitive Spanes or Spans, plural Späne)

1. chip; shaving; clipping (small, usually flat, cut-off piece)

Declension

Declension of Span [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Span	die	Späne
genitive	eines	des	Spanes, Spans	der	Späne
dative	einem	dem	Span, Spane1	den	Spänen
accusative	einen	den	Span	die	Späne

¹Now rare, see notes.

Derived terms

• Holzspan
• Metallspan
• wo gehobelt wird, da fallen Späne

Further reading

• “Span” in Duden online
• “Span” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache