German

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle High German splīzen, from Old High German *splīzan, from Proto-West Germanic *splītan, which see for cognates. Within High German, the word was restricted to Central German, but even here far from general, and therefore did not establish itself in the modern standard language. The nautical sense after Low German splissen, splitzen, a related (but not identical) form.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈʃplaɪ̯sən/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: splei‧ßen

Verb

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spleißen (class 1 strong or weak, third-person singular present spleißt, past tense spliss or spleißte, past participle gesplissen or gespleißt, auxiliary haben)

  1. (rare, of wood, otherwise obsolete) to split
    Synonym: spalten
  2. (nautical) to splice (unite ropes or cables by interweaving the strands)

Usage notes

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  • Usually strong for “to split” and weak for “to splice”, but occasional variation in both directions is possible.

Conjugation

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Further reading

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  • spleißen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • spleißen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • spleißen” in Duden online
  • spleißen” in OpenThesaurus.de