spange

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See also: Spange

English

Etymology

Blend of spare +‎ change, from stereotyped phrase “spare change?”, “ spare any change?”

Pronunciation

Verb

spange (third-person singular simple present spanges, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)

  1. (US, intransitive) To beg, particularly using the phrase “spare change?”
    • 1996, Tim “Salvage”, quoted in Ian Fisher, “Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold.”[1]
      I don’t spange much because I really don’t like doing it. I eat out of trash cans a lot.
    • 2009, Kelly Myers, 33, quoted in Joe Deegan, “Nowhere To Go”, San Diego Reader[2]
      Then my father would send all us kids out to ‘spange’ . You could sometimes make $50 a day by spanging. Other days you might make a dollar.

Usage notes

Often used to refer to one’s own activities,[1][2] without pejorative sense. Compare spanger, often used pejoratively to refer to others.

Derived terms

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold,” Ian Fisher, December 8, 1996, The New York Times
  2. 2.0 2.1 Nowhere To Go, by Joe Deegan, San Diego Reader, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009
  • Word Watch, The Atlantic, April 1997, by Anne H. Soukhanov, executive editor of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition.

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