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English
Etymology
Borrowed from Scots spae.
Verb
spae (third-person singular simple present spaes, present participle spaeing, simple past and past participle spaed)
- (Scotland) To divine; foretell.
1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 242:A mermaid from the water rose,
And spaed Sir Sinclair ill.
Derived terms
Anagrams
- pase, SEPA, Peas, Paes, PEAs, peas, APEs, Sepa, apse, EAPs, EPAs, apes, PESA
Scots
Etymology
From Northern Middle English spā, from Old Norse spá (“to foretell, prophesy”), from Proto-Germanic *spahōną, *spehōną (“to observe”), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”). Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål spå.
Pronunciation
Verb
spae (third-person singular simple present spaes, present participle spaein, simple past spaed, past participle spaed)
- to prophesy, foretell, predict, tell fortunes
- to anticipate, wish, have ambitions for
Derived terms
- spae-craft (“the art of predicting the future”)
- spaedom (“prophecy, fortunetelling”)
- spae-folk (“sorcerers, wizards”)
- spaeman (“fortuneteller, diviner, prophet”)
- spaer (“fortuneteller, soothsayer”)
- spae-trade (“the practice of fortune-telling, prophecy”)
- spae-wark (“prognosticating, prophesying, soothsaying”)
- spaewife (“female fortuneteller”)
- spae-woman (“female fortuneteller”)
Descendants