spar

• (UK) IPA^(key): /spɑː/
• (US) IPA^(key): /spɑɹ/, [spɑɹ], [spɑ˞]
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)
• Homophone: spa (in non-rhotic accents)

From Middle English sparre (“spar, rafter, beam”) (noun), sparren (“to close, bar”) (verb), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sparrô (“stake, beam”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- (“beam, log”). Compare Dutch spar (“balk”), German Sparren (“rafter, spar”), Danish sparre (“spar”), Albanian shparr, shpardh (“kind of oak”). Perhaps also compare spear, park.

spar (plural spars)

1. A rafter of a roof.
2. A thick pole or piece of wood.
3. (obsolete) A bar of wood used to fasten a door.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.11:

     The Prince staid not his aunswere to devize, / But, opening streight the Sparre, forth to him came […].

4. (nautical) Any linear object used as a mast, sprit, yard, boom, pole or gaff.
5. (aeronautics) A beam-like structural member that supports ribs in an aircraft wing or other airfoil.

• spar buoy
• spar deck
• spar torpedo

spar (third-person singular simple present spars, present participle sparring, simple past and past participle sparred)

1. (obsolete or dialectal) to bolt, bar.
2. (transitive) To supply or equip (a vessel) with spars.

• oversparred, undersparred

From Middle English sparren (“to thrust or strike rapidly”), from Old English sperran, spirran, spyrran (“to strike, strike out at, spar”), related to Low German sparre (“a struggling, striving”), German sich sperren (“to struggle, resist, oppose”), Icelandic sperrask (“to kick out at, thrust, struggle”).

spar (third-person singular simple present spars, present participle sparring, simple past and past participle sparred)

1. To fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat.
   • 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC‎:

     After early sparring, Spurs started to take control as the interval approached and twice came close to taking the lead. Terry blocked Rafael van der Vaart's header on the line and the same player saw his cross strike the post after Adebayor was unable to apply a touch.

2. To strike with the feet or spurs, as cocks do.
3. To contest in words; to wrangle.

spar (plural spars)

1. A sparring session; a preliminary fight, as in boxing or cock-fighting.

From Middle Low German spar, sper (“spar”); or from a backformation of sparstone (“spar”), from Middle English sparston (“gypsum, chalk”), from Old English spærstān (“gypsum”). Related to German Sparkalk (“plaster”), Old English spæren (“of plaster, of mortar”).

spar (countable and uncountable, plural spars)

1. (mineralogy) Any of various microcrystalline minerals, of light, translucent, or transparent appearance, which are easily cleft.
2. (mineralogy) Any crystal with readily discernible faces.

• APRs, Arps, PSRA, RAPs, arps, pars, raps, rasp, sapr-

From Spanish espada (“sword”), from Latin spatha, from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “blade”).

spar c (singular definite sparen, plural indefinite sparer)

1. spade (one of the black suits in a deck of cards)

See spare (“to save,spare”).

spar

1. imperative of spare

Suits in Danish · farven, kulører (layout · text)
hjerter ♥	ruder ♦	spar ♠	klør ♣

• spar on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da
• Spar (kulør) on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

From Middle Dutch sparre (“pole, beam”). Cognate to West Frisian spjir. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

• IPA^(key): /spɑr/

• audio

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• Hyphenation: spar
• Rhymes: -ɑr

spar m (plural sparren, diminutive sparretje n)

1. spruce; certain tree of the family Pinaceae, especially of the genus Picea', but also used for trees of the genera Abies, Tsuga and Pseudotsuga.

• blauwspar
• douglasspar
• fijnspar
• Nordmannspar
• zilverspar

• IPA^(key): [ʃpaːɐ̯]

spar

1. Imperative singular of sparen.
2. (colloquial) First-person singular present of sparen.

spar (comparative sparari, superlative sparastur)

1. economical
2. thrifty

spar ?

1. errand

From German [Term?], from Spanish espadas (“sword”)

spar

1. spades (suit in playing cards)

spar

1. imperative of spare

• “spar” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From German [Term?], from Spanish espadas (“sword”)

spar m (definite singular sparen, indefinite plural spar or sparar, definite plural sparane)

1. spades (suit in playing cards)

spar

1. present of spa
2. imperative of spara

• “spar” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

spar

1. present tense of spara.
2. imperative of spara.