Spin

How to spell spin

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spin

What does spin mean?

1. verbTo turn or rotate rapidly around a central point.
2. nounA rapid turning movement, or a short trip in a vehicle.
3. nounA way of presenting information to influence opinion, often misleadingly favourable.

Spin in a sentence

• verb

  The dancer began to spin across the polished floor.

• noun

  The bowler put a sharp spin on the cricket ball.

• noun

  The press office put a positive spin on the disappointing results.

• verb

  A slight push can spin the office chair right around.

• noun

  They took the new car out for a quick spin around the block.

• noun

  Voters grew tired of the constant spin from both campaigns.

Where does spin come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from the Old English verb spinnan, meaning to draw out fibre and twist it into thread, the everyday work of making yarn before machines existed. It belongs to a wider Germanic family, with close relatives in the Dutch spinnen and the German spinnen, all carrying that same idea of twisting and turning. From the literal sense of turning a spindle, the meaning broadened over the centuries to cover any rapid rotation, and then any fast or dizzying movement. The noun arrived much later, in the nineteenth century, naming the act of turning. In the twentieth century journalists and political handlers gave it a fresh life, using spin for the practice of twisting a story to put it in a favourable light, a neat echo of the original thread-twisting image.

How the word is built

• spin (from Old English spinnan: to draw out and twist fibre)