span
pronunciation
How to pronounce span in British English:
UK [spæn]
How to pronounce span in American English:
US [spæn]
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- Noun:
- the complete duration of something
- the distance or interval between two points
- two items of the same kind
- a unit of length based on the width of the expanded human hand (usually taken as 9 inches)
- a structure that allows people or vehicles to cross an obstacle such as a river or canal or railway etc.
- the act of sitting or standing astride
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- Verb:
- to cover or extend over an area or time period
Word Origin
- span
- span: [OE] Span is of Germanic origin, with relatives in German and Dutch spanne, Swedish spann, and Danish spand. It originated in the notion of the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the little finger. The verb span was derived in the 14th century from the noun. Its German relative spannen ‘stretch, tighten’ produced the derived noun spanner, which was borrowed by English in the 17th century.=> spanner
- span (n.1)
- "distance between two objects," from Old English span "distance between the thumb and little finger of an extended hand" (as a measure of length, roughly nine inches), probably related to Middle Dutch spannen "to join, fasten" (see span (v.)). The Germanic word was borrowed into Medieval Latin as spannus, hence Italian spanna, Old French espan "hand's width, span as a unit of measure," French empan. As a measure of volume (early 14c.), "what can be held in two cupped hands." Meaning "length of time" first attested 1590s; that of "space between abutments of an arch, etc." is from 1725. Meaning "maximum lateral dimension of an aircraft" is first recorded 1909.
- span (v.)
- Old English spannan "to join, link, clasp, fasten, bind, connect; stretch, span," from Proto-Germanic *spannan (cognates: Old Norse spenna, Old Frisian spanna, Middle Dutch spannen, Dutch spannan "stretch, bend, hoist, hitch," Old High German spannan, German spannen "to join, fasten, extend, connect"), from PIE root *(s)pen- "to draw, stretch, spin" (cognates: Latin pendere "to hang, to cause to hang," pondus "weight" (perhaps the notion is the weight of a thing measured by how much it stretches a cord), pensare "to weigh, consider;" Greek ponos "toil," ponein "to toil;" Lithuanian spendziu "lay a snare;" Old Church Slavonic peti "stretch, strain," pato "fetter," pina "I span;" Old English spinnan "to spin;" for other cognates, see spin (v.)). The meaning "to encircle with the hand(s)" is from 1781; in the sense of "to form an arch over (something)" it is first recorded 1630s. Related: Spanned; spanning.
- span (n.2)
- "two animals driven together," 1769, American English, from Dutch span, from spannen "to stretch or yoke," from Middle Dutch spannan, cognate with Old English spannan "to join" (see span (v.)). Also used in South African English.
Example
- 1. And this so-called sea spider has legs that span half a meter .
- 2. The northern aral 's surface span has grown by 20 percent and fish and bird species are starting to return .
- 3. Setting up a proper public pension and welfare system will require another 70 % of gdp or more , though over a longer time span .
- 4. When you pull her away from something she 's deeply involved in , you 're breaking her flow and you 're actually training her to have a shorter attention span .
- 5. I basically know the answer : temperature is a noisy time series , so if you pick and choose your dates over a short time span you can usually make whatever case you want .