spawn
pronunciation
How to pronounce spawn in British English:
UK [spɔːn]
How to pronounce spawn in American English:
US [spɔːn]
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- Noun:
- the mass of eggs deposited by fish or amphibians or molluscs
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- Verb:
- call forth
- lay spawn
Word Origin
- spawn
- spawn: [14] Spawn is ultimately the same word as expand, and etymologically it denotes the ‘spreading out’ of a fish’s eggs by its shedding them into the water. The word comes from espaundre, an Anglo-Norman variant of Old French espandre ‘spread, shed’. This was descended from Latin expandere ‘spread out’ (source of English expand [15]), a compound verb formed from the prefix ex- ‘out’ and pandere ‘spread’.=> expand
- spawn (v.)
- c. 1400, intransitive, from Anglo-French espaundre, Old French espandre "to spread out, pour out, scatter, strew, spawn (of fish)" (Modern French épandre), from Latin expandere (see expand). The notion is of a "spreading out" of fish eggs released in water. The transitive meaning "to engender, give rise to" is attested from 1590s. Related: Spawned; spawning.
- spawn (n.)
- late 15c., "fish eggs," from spawn (v.); figurative sense of "brood, offspring," and, insultingly, of persons, is from 1580s.
Example
- 1. Pink salmon ( oncorhynchus gorbuscha ) migrating upriver to spawn .
- 2. Always leave plenty of spawn in the pond to hatch naturally .
- 3. A quarter of the world 's pacific salmon spawn in the volcanic kamchatka peninsula .
- 4. Fish spawn at shallow waters and mountain rivers that fill the lake with water .
- 5. Even if direct financial contagion is contained , america 's subprime crisis could spawn psychological contagion , particularly a reassessment of house prices .