spak

Middle English

Verb

spak

  1. Simple past of speak.
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Scots

Pronunciation

Verb

spak

  1. Simple past of speak.
    • 1806, Walter Scott, Minstrelsy of the Scottish border (3rd ed) (1 of 3)[1]:
      Then spak the lord, hight Hamilton, And to the nobil king said he, "My sovereign prince, sum counsell take, First at your nobilis, syne at me.
    • 1905, Robert Louis Stevenson, David Balfour, Second Part[2]:
      But whan he spak, it was mair in sorrow than in anger.
    • 1898, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr, Scottish sketches[3]:
      And I'll do this messenger justice; he laid down no law to me, he only spak o' the duty laid on his own conscience; but my conscience said 'Amen' to his--that's about it.
    • 1896, Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch, Adventures in Criticism[4]:
      Ful wel she song the service divyne, Entuned in hir nose ful semely; And Frensh she spak ful faire and fetisly, After the scole of Stratford atte Bowe, For Frensh of Paris was to hir unknowe..."
    • 1919, Frederic Moorman, More Tales of the Ridings[5]:
      Them was t' truest words he iver spak, an' shoo would hae been muck-cheap if I'd gien a million pund for her."
    • 1857, Various, The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume IV.[6]:
      I went unto her mother, and I argued and I fleech'd, I spak o' love and honesty, and mair and mair beseech'd; But she was deaf to a' my grief, she wadna look on me; O poverty!
    • 1904, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Merry Men[7]:
      Het as he was, he took a kind o' cauld grue in the marrow o' his banes; but up he spak for a' that; an' says he: 'My friend, are you a stranger in this place?'
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Swedish

Etymology 1

From Old Swedish spaker (wise, clever).

Adjective

spak (comparative spakare, superlative spakast)

  1. powerless, tired, obedient, tame, calm, easy, reasonable; of a person or animal that used to resist, but has given up the fight; of calm water
    spak som ett lamm
    tame as a lamb
Declension
Declension of spak
Inflections of
spak		 Absolute Comparative Superlative
Attributive Predicative
Indefinite
singular		 Common spak spakare spakast
Neuter spakt
Definite
singular		 Masc. spake spakaste
All spaka spakaste
Plural spaka spakaste
Related terms
  • spakhet
  • spakna
  • spakvatten
Synonyms
  • foglig
  • kuvad
  • medgörlig

Etymology 2

Old Swedish spaker (rod, stick, lever), from Middle Low German spake, cognate with Danish spag (spoke), Dutch spaak (spoke), and English spoke.

Noun

spak c

  1. a lever, a rod, a handle, a stick, a joystick, a control
    nazisterna sitter vid spakarna
    the nazis are in control
Declension
Declension of spak
singular plural
Common indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative spak spaken spakar spakarna
genitive spaks spakens spakars spakarnas
Related terms
Synonyms

References

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Last modified on 31 January 2013, at 18:32