Spit

How to spell spit

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spit

What does spit mean?

1. verbTo eject saliva or other matter forcibly from the mouth.
2. nounSaliva, especially when ejected from the mouth.
3. nounA long pointed rod on which meat is skewered and turned over a fire to roast.
4. nounA narrow point of land, usually sand or shingle, projecting into a body of water.

Spit in a sentence

• verb

  The dentist asked him to spit into the small basin.

• noun

  She wiped a fleck of spit from the corner of her mouth.

• noun

  The whole lamb turned slowly on a spit above the coals.

• noun

  A long sandy spit curved out into the harbour mouth.

• verb

  It is rude to spit on the pavement in the city centre.

• noun

  The lab tested a small sample of spit for the marker.

Where does spit come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This little word actually braids together two separate Old English ancestors, which is why it carries such different meanings. The verb for ejecting saliva comes from Old English spittan, a word built to imitate the very sound and action of forcing spittle from the mouth, and it has close cousins across the Germanic languages. The noun for a pointed rod used to roast meat comes instead from Old English spitu, meaning a sharp skewer, related to Dutch spit and German Spiess, all carrying the sense of something long and pointed. From that same idea of a thin projecting point came the geographical sense, a narrow finger of sand or shingle reaching out into water. Because all three threads collapsed into the identical short spelling, the word looks deceptively simple while hiding three quite distinct stories.

How the word is built

• spit (whole word; from Old English spittan 'to eject saliva', of imitative Germanic origin)