Wiktionary

spire

See also: 'spire

English edit

 
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Pronunciation edit

Etymology 1 edit

From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.

Noun edit

spire (plural spires)

  1. (now rare) The stalk or stem of a plant. [from 10th c.]
  2. A young shoot of a plant; a spear. [from 14th c.]
  3. Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
  4. A sharp or tapering point. [from 16th c.]
    • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict‎[1]:
      A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.
  5. (architecture) A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof. [from 16th c.]
    The spire of the church rose high above the town.
  6. The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit. [from 17th c.]
  7. (mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit

Verb edit

spire (third-person singular simple present spires, present participle spiring, simple past and past participle spired)

  1. (of a seed, plant etc.) to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate. [from 14th c.]
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
      In gentle Ladies breste and bounteous race / Of woman kind it fayrest Flowre doth spyre, / And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desyre.
    • 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708, →OCLC:
      It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms.
  2. To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally. [from 14th c.]
  3. (transitive) To furnish with a spire.

Etymology 2 edit

From Old French spirer, and its source, Latin spīrō (“to breathe”).

Verb edit

spire (third-person singular simple present spires, present participle spiring, simple past and past participle spired)

  1. (intransitive, obsolete) To breathe. [14th–16th c.]

Etymology 3 edit

From Middle French spire.

Noun edit

spire (plural spires)

  1. One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil. [from 16th c.]
  2. A spiral. [from 17th c.]
  3. (geometry) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.

Anagrams edit

French edit

Etymology edit

From Latin spira, from Ancient Greek σπεῖρα (speîra).

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

spire f (plural spires)

  1. turn (of a spiral)
  2. turn (of an electromagnetic coil)

Further reading edit

Anagrams edit

Italian edit

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈspi.re/
  • Rhymes: -ire
  • Hyphenation: spì‧re

Noun edit

spire f

  1. plural of spira

Anagrams edit

Middle English edit

Noun edit

spire

  1. Alternative form of spere (“sphere”)

Norwegian Bokmål edit

Etymology edit

From Old Norse spíra (stem, pipe; little tree).

Noun edit

spire f or m (definite singular spira or spiren, indefinite plural spirer, definite plural spirene)

  1. sprout

Verb edit

spire (present tense spirer, past tense spirte, past participle spirt)

  1. to sprout

References edit

Venetian edit

Noun edit

spire

  1. plural of spira
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