spá

From Old Norse spá (“to foretell, prophesy”), from Proto-Germanic *spahōną, *spēhōną (“to observe”), from Proto-Indo-European *speḱ- (“to look”). Cognate to Scots spae.

• IPA^(key): /spauː/

  Rhymes: -auː

spá f (genitive singular spár, nominative plural spár)

1. a prophecy
2. (medicine) a prognosis (a forecast of the future course of a disease or disorder, based on medical knowledge)
3. a weather forecast

• (prophecy): spádómur
• (prognosis): horfur
• (weather forecast): veðurspá

• stjörnuspá (“horoscope”)

spá (weak verb, third-person singular past indicative spáði, supine spáð)

1. (transitive, with dative object) to forecast, to predict

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

• spá fyrir (“to tell somebody's fortune”)
• spá í lófa (“to read somebody's palm”)
• spá í

• spǫ́

From late Proto-Norse ᛋᛒᛡ (sbᴀ), earlier *ᛊᛈᚨᚺᚢ (*spahu), from Proto-Germanic *spahō.

spá f (genitive spár)

2. a prophecy

   Synonym: spádómr

   sjaldan hafa spár mínar átt langan aldr

   my prophecies rarely take a long time to come true

• spádómr (“prophecy”)
• Vǫluspá (“the first poem of the Poetic Edda”)

• Icelandic: spá

From Proto-Germanic *spahōną, *spehōną.

spá (singular past indicative spáði, plural past indicative spáðu, past participle spáðr)

2. (ditransitive, with dative and accusative (or genitive)) to prophesy, to foretell (something to someone)

• Icelandic: spá
• Faroese: spáa
• Norwegian Nynorsk: spå
• Old Swedish: spā
  • Swedish: spå
• Old Danish: spaa
  • Danish: spå
• → Northern Middle English: spā
  • Scots: spae, spay
    • → English: spae

• spá in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, G. T. Zoëga, Clarendon Press, 1910, at Internet Archive.