FromMiddle Englishspanne, fromOld Englishspann, fromProto-Germanic*spannō(“span, handbreadth”), fromProto-Indo-European*(s)pend-(“to stretch”).[1]
Cognate withDutchspan,spanne,GermanSpanne. The sense “pair of horses” is probably fromOld Englishġespan,ġespann(“a joining; a fastening together; clasp; yoke”), fromProto-West Germanic[Term?]. Cognate withDutchgespan,GermanGespann.
span (pluralspans)
- Thefullwidth of anopenhand from theend of thethumb to theend of thelittle fingerused as aninformalunit oflength.
- Any ofvarioustraditionalunits oflengthapproximating thisdistance,especially theEnglishhandspan of 9inchesforming ⅛fathom andequivalent to 22.86cm.
- (by extension) A small space or a brief portion of time.
He has a short attentionspan and gets bored within minutes.
2007, John Zerzan,Silence:The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attentionspans,
- A portion of something by length; asubsequence.
2004, Robert Harris, Robert Warner,The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace, page759:For example, in OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Word, eachspan of text can have a style that defines key characteristics about the text: • What font it uses • Whether it's normal, bolded, italicized,[…]
- (architecture, construction) The spread or extent of anarch or between itsabutments, or of a beam,girder,truss,roof,bridge, or the like, betweensupports.
1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, inTrains Illustrated, page 5:The force of the explosion demolished one pair of piers and twospans of the bridge crashed down into the river on top of the barges.
- (architecture, construction) The length of acable,wire,rope,chain between two consecutivesupports.
- (nautical) A rope having its ends made fast so that a purchase can be hooked to thebight; also, a rope made fast in the center so that both ends can be used.
- (US, Canada) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.
- (mathematics) The space of alllinear combinations ofvectors within aset.
- (computing) The time required to execute aparallel algorithm on an infinite number of processors, i.e. the shortest distance across adirectedacyclicgraph representing the computation steps.
2017, Ananya Kumar, Guy E. Blelloch, Robert Harper, “Parallel Functional Arrays”, inACM SIGPLAN Notices,→DOI:We use the termspan (also called depth, or dependence depth) to refer to the number of parallel steps assuming an unbounded number of processors.
- wingspan of a plane or bird
Any of various units of length approximating the full width of an open hand
small space or a brief portion of time
nautical: rope having its ends made fast
pair of horses or other animals
mathematics: the space of all linear combinations of something
FromMiddle Englishspannen, fromOld Englishspannan, fromProto-Germanic*spannaną(“to stretch, span”). Cognate withGermanspannen,Dutchspannen.
span (third-person singular simple presentspans,present participlespanning,simple past and past participlespanned)
- (transitive) To extend through thedistancebetween oracross.
The suspension bridgespanned the canyon.
2023 March 8, “Network News: Grant for repairs at Gaunless Bridge”, inRAIL, number978, page 9:Completed in 1823, Gaunless Bridge was designed by George Stephenson tospan the River Gaunless in West Auckland, forming part of a line serving Witton Park Colliery.
- (transitive) To extend through (a time period).
The parking lotspans three acres.
The novelspans three centuries.
- (transitive) To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.
- tospan a space or distance; tospan a cylinder
- (mathematics) To generate an entire space by means oflinear combinations.
- (intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
- (transitive) Tofetter, as a horse; tohobble.
1972,Mountain, numbers20-24, page22:Wespanned the dogs high up a corrie to the south of the ridge[…]
to extend through the distance between or across
to extend through a time period
to measure by the span of the hand
mathematics: to generate an entire space by means of linear combinations
FromMiddle Englishspan, fromOld Englishspann, fromProto-Germanic*spann, first and third person singular preterit indicative ofProto-Germanic*spinnaną(“to spin”).
span
- (dated, now uncommon)simplepast ofspin
1891,H[enry] Rider Haggard, “How Hall of Lithdale Took Tidings to Iceland”, inEric Brighteyes, 2nd edition, London:Longmans, Green, and Co.,→OCLC,page204:So they went in to where Gudruda sat spinning in the hall, singing as shespan.
2014 September 29,Reuters, “Five spectators in critical condition following stunt truck accident”, inIrish Independent[1], archived fromthe original on11 March 2016:Five spectators remained in critical condition on Monday, a day after they were injured when a giant pick-up truckspan out of control during a stunt show in a Dutch town, killing three people, local officials said.
- span-new(probably etymologically unrelated)
- NSPA,Snap,ANPs,NPAS,SNAP,naps,PANs,PNAs,pans,snap,APNS,PNAS,Pans,NPAs
From oldergespan.
span n (pluralspannen,diminutivespannetje n)
- aspan, ateam(pair or larger team of draught animals)[from 17th c.]
- acart orinstrument with a team ofdraught animals[from 18th c.]
- a romanticpair,couple[from 19th c.]
Fromspannen.
span m orf (pluralspannen,diminutivespannetje n)
- (dated)span(distance between extended thumb and little finger)
- (dated)span(interval of space or time)
See the etymology of the correspondinglemma form.
span
- inflection ofspannen:
- first-personsingularpresentindicative
- (in case ofinversion)second-personsingularpresentindicative
- imperative
span n (genitive singularspans,no plural)
- hurry,haste
- (physics)induction
Declension ofspan (sg-only neuter)
span
- Alternative form ofspanne
FromDutchspannen.
span
- exciting
- angry,displeased
- busy,crowded
- tight,taut
- tense,stressed
- loaded,crammed
- (of a projectile weapon)loaded,armed
span
- tension
- excitement
span
- tostretch out
- totighten
- tocrowd
- to sufferstress, to beagitated
- to be exciting
1981,Thea Doelwijt,Prisiri stari. De pretster. Wan komedi-pré gi pikin. Een theaterspel voor kinderen [The star of joy. A theatre play for children][2], Paramaribo: Eldoradoboek,→ISBN, page114:Ini 1974 te kon miti a srefidensi foe Sranan (1975), a Doe-Theater pré: LibiSpan ini na ati joe[sic – meaningfoe] Sranan - wan totaal-theater-pré, pe singi, pokoe, dansi nanga pré moksi kon na wan, èn pe den someni koeltoeroe foe Sranan ben e begi foe a krakti foe Mama Sranan.- [Ini 1974 te kon miti a srefidensi fu Sranan (1975), a Doe-Theater prei: LibiSpan ini na ati fu Sranan - wan totaal-theater-prei, pe singi, poku, dansi nanga prei moksi kon na wan, èn pe den someni kulturu fu Sranan ben e begi fu a krakti fu Mama Sranan.]
- In 1974 until the independence of Suriname (1975), the Doe-Theater performed: Life's Exciting in the Heart of Suriname - a total-theatre play where song, music, dance and theatre mixed together, and where Suriname's many cultures invoked the strength of Mother Suriname.
- (of a projectile weapon) toload, toarm
Deverbal fromspana.
span n
- (colloquial) an act ofspying (something)
Jag hadefått span på en dam som kan få en att bli monogam- I hadspied a lady that can make one monogamous
- (colloquial)stakeout
FromLow German orDutchspannen(“to yoke, stretch”).
span n (pluralspannen,diminutivespantsje)
- span,team(pair of draught animals in a team)
- pair,couple
- “span (I)”, inWurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch),2011
