Wiktionary

span

See also: Appendix:Variations of "span"

English

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Etymology 1

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From Middle English spanne, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spannō (“span, handbreadth”). Cognate with Dutch span, spanne, German Spanne. The sense “pair of horses” is probably from Old English ġespan, ġespann (“a joining; a fastening together; clasp; yoke”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?]. Cognate with Dutch gespan, German Gespann.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

span (plural spans)

  1. The full width of an open hand from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger used as an informal unit of length.
  2. Any of various traditional units of length approximating this distance, especially the English handspan of 9 inches forming ⅛ fathom and equivalent to 22.86 cm.
  3. (by extension) A small space or a brief portion of time.
    He has a short attention span and gets bored within minutes.
  4. A portion of something by length; a subsequence.
    • 2004, Robert Harris, Robert Warner, The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace, page 759:
      For example, in OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Word, each span of text can have a style that defines key characteristics about the text: • What font it uses • Whether it's normal, bolded, italicized, […]
  5. (architecture, construction) The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
    • 1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5:
      The force of the explosion demolished one pair of piers and two spans of the bridge crashed down into the river on top of the barges.
  6. (architecture, construction) The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
  7. (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.
  8. (US, Canada) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.
  9. (mathematics) The space of all linear combinations of vectors within a set.
  10. (computing) The time required to execute a parallel algorithm on an infinite number of processors, i.e. the shortest distance across a directed acyclic graph representing the computation steps.
    • 2017, Ananya Kumar, Guy E. Blelloch, Robert Harper, “Parallel Functional Arrays”, in ACM SIGPLAN Notices, →DOI:
      We use the term span (also called depth, or dependence depth) to refer to the number of parallel steps assuming an unbounded number of processors.
  11. wingspan of a plane or bird
Derived terms
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Translations
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See also
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Etymology 2

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From Middle English spannen, from Old English spannan, from Proto-Germanic *spannaną (“to stretch, span”). Cognate with German spannen, Dutch spannen.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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span (third-person singular simple present spans, present participle spanning, simple past and past participle spanned)

  1. (transitive) To extend through the distance between or across.
    The suspension bridge spanned the canyon.
    • 1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC:
      The rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry.
    • 2023 March 8, “Network News: Grant for repairs at Gaunless Bridge”, in RAIL, number 978, page 9:
      Completed in 1823, Gaunless Bridge was designed by George Stephenson to span the River Gaunless in West Auckland, forming part of a line serving Witton Park Colliery.
  2. (transitive) To extend through (a time period).
    The parking lot spans three acres.
    The novel spans three centuries.
  3. (transitive) To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.
    to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder
  4. (mathematics) To generate an entire space by means of linear combinations.
  5. (intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
  6. (transitive) To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.
Translations
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Etymology 3

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From Middle English span, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spann, first and third person singular preterit indicative of Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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span

  1. (dated, now uncommon) simple past of spin
Alternative forms
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Derived terms
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See also

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  • span-new (probably etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From older gespan.

Noun

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span n (plural spannen, diminutive spannetje n)

  1. A span, a team (pair or larger team of draught animals). [from 17th c.]
  2. A cart or instrument with a team of draught animals. [from 18th c.]
  3. A romantic pair, couple. [from 19th c.]
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • Afrikaans: span

Etymology 2

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From spannen

Noun

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span m or f (plural spannen, diminutive spannetje n)

  1. (dated) span (distance between extended thumb and little finger)
  2. (dated) span (interval of space or time)
Alternative forms
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Derived terms
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Etymology 3

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

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span

  1. inflection of spannen:
    1. first-person singular present indicative
    2. imperative

Anagrams

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Icelandic

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Noun

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span n (genitive singular spans, no plural)

  1. hurry, haste
  2. (physics) induction

Declension

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declension of span
n-s singular
indefinite definite
nominative span spanið
accusative span spanið
dative spani spaninu
genitive spans spansins

Further reading

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Middle English

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Noun

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span

  1. Alternative form of spanne

Sranan Tongo

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Dutch gespannen.

Noun

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span

  1. tense

Descendants

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Swedish

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Etymology

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Deverbal from spana.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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span n

  1. (colloquial) an act of spying (something)
    Jag hade fått span på en dam som kan få en att bli monogam
    I had spied a lady that can make one monogamous
  2. (colloquial) stakeout

References

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West Frisian

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Etymology

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From Low German or Dutch spannen (“to yoke, stretch”).

Noun

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span n (plural spannen, diminutive spantsje)

  1. span, team (pair of draught animals in a team)
  2. pair, couple

Further reading

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  • “span (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
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