Sporn

See also: sporn

German

Etymology

From Middle High German spore, from Old High German sporo, from Proto-West Germanic *sporō, from Proto-Germanic *spurô.

Cognate with Dutch spoor, English spur. The final -n of the modern form is from the Middle High German inflected forms. The development of a singular in -n with plural in -en is unique, though somewhat similar to that in Herr.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ʃpɔrn/, [ʃpɔʁn], [ʃpɔɐ̯n], [ʃpɔːn]
  • Audio(file)

Noun

Sporn m (strong, genitive Sporns or Spornes, plural Sporen or Sporne)

  1. spur

Usage notes
  • In the literal sense “implement for prodding a horse”, the plural is almost always Sporen. The form Sporne is used in some derived senses and compounds.

Declension
Declension of Sporn [masculine, strong]
singular plural
indef. def. noun def. noun
nominative ein der Sporn die Sporen, Sporne
genitive eines des Sporns, Spornes der Sporen, Sporne
dative einem dem Sporn, Sporne1 den Sporen, Spornen
accusative einen den Sporn die Sporen, Sporne

1Now rare, see notes.

Derived terms

Further reading
  • “Sporn” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • “Sporn” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • “Sporn” in Duden online
  • “Sporn” in OpenThesaurus.de
  • Sporn on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia de
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.