Spurred

How to spell spurred

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spurred

What does spurred mean?

1. verbEncouraged or prompted someone or something to act, move, or develop more quickly.
2. verbUrged a horse forward by pressing it with the spiked devices worn on the rider's heels.

Spurred in a sentence

• The year-end bonus spurred the team to finish the project early.

• The jockey spurred his mount as they rounded the final bend.

• Rising fuel prices spurred many commuters to switch to the train.

• She spurred the tired horse gently up the steep track.

Where does spurred come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the past tense of the verb 'spur', which traces back to the Old English noun 'spura' or 'spora', the spiked metal device strapped to a rider's heel and used to prick a horse into motion. The word belongs to a wider Germanic family connected to the idea of pressing or kicking with the foot, and it shares a distant root with 'spurn', which originally meant to strike away with the foot. From the literal sense of jabbing a horse forward, English speakers naturally extended 'spur' to mean urging any person or process onward, a figurative use well established by the late Middle Ages. The spelling trap in 'spurred' lies in the doubled 'r': because 'spur' ends in a single short stressed vowel followed by one consonant, that consonant doubles before the '-ed' ending, just as in 'stirred' and 'blurred'.

How the word is built

• spur (a pricking device; an urging force)
• -r- (consonant doubled after a short stressed vowel)
• -ed (past tense suffix)