spelk

From Middle English spelke, from Old English spilc, spelc (“a splint”), from Proto-Germanic *spelkō, *spalkō, *spalkuz (“bast, splint”).

• IPA^(key): /spɛlk/

spelk (plural spelks)

1. (Northern English) A splinter, usually of wood.
2. (Northern English) A wooden splinter caught under the skin.
3. (Northern English) A rod or switch.
4. (aeronautics, space) Unusably short lengths of fibre-reinforced material, such as prepreg.

spelk (third-person singular simple present spelks, present participle spelking, simple past and past participle spelked)

1. (transitive, Northern English) To use a spelk in or on.
   • 1884, Notes and Queries (page 193)

     A spelk is often a hazel of two or three years' growth. It is pointed at each end, and is three or four feet long, and is placed at right angles with the thatch to hold it down. Sometimes a bit of very neat work is displayed in the spelking of the thatch […]

• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977
• The New Geordie Dictionary, Frank Graham, 1987, →ISBN
• A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Bill Griffiths, 2005, Northumbria University Press, →ISBN
• Newcastle 1970s, Scott Dobson and Dick Irwin,
• A List of words and phrases in everyday use by the natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham, F.M.T.Palgrave, English Dialect Society vol.74, 1896,

• kelps, skelp