Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of dapper attire.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Originally of German extraction, to be fashionable, made popular during the reign of the King George iii of England 1780s.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word sprote.

Examples

  • Can _saliu_ be a mistake for _salar_, and _sprote_ the Anglo-Saxon form of the corresponding modern word _sprod_, i.e. the salmon of the second year?

    Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850 Various

  • I do not think the point, and the Capital letter to _saliu_ in the Latin text, conclusive, as nothing of the kind occurs in the A. - S. version, where the reading is clearly, "_swa hwylce swa_, on watere swymmath sprote."

    Notes and Queries, Number 18, March 2, 1850 Various

  • The sense required appears to me to be, _quickly, swiftly, _ and this will, I think, be found to be the meaning of _sprote_.

    Notes and Queries, Number 13, January 26, 1850 Various

  • Mr. Thorpe, in the 1st edition of his _Analecta_, says, "What is intended to be meant by this word [_sprote_], as well as by _salu_ [the correspondent word in the Latin], I am at a loss to conjecture."

    Notes and Queries, Number 13, January 26, 1850 Various

  • I must be excused, therefore, for still clinging to my own explanation of _sprote_, until something more _specious_ and _ingenious_ shall be advanced, but in full confidence, at the same time, that some future discovery will elucidate its truth.

    Notes and Queries, Number 18, March 2, 1850 Various

  • "Aelas aud hacodas, mynas, aud aelputan, sceotan aud lampredan, aud swa hwylce swa on waetere swymath, _sprote_."

    Notes and Queries, Number 13, January 26, 1850 Various

  • His conjecture, that _sprote_ = Goth. _sprauto_, has something very specious about it, and yet I must reject it.

    Notes and Queries, Number 15, February 9, 1850 Various

  • _mistake_; for it is quite evident that _sprote_ applies to fish-_swimming_ and not to fish-_catching_; and I presume that "useful and sagacious" auxiliary, Dr. Kitchener himself, would hardly have ventured to deny that _fish_ may _swim quickly_?

    Notes and Queries, Number 16, February 16, 1850 Various

  • _plural_; and it is not to be supposed that there would be an exception in favour of _sprote_, whether intended for _sprat_ or _salmon_.

    Notes and Queries, Number 18, March 2, 1850 Various

  • _sprote_ was a puzzle to me, and I had often questioned myself as to its meaning, but never could get a satisfactory answer; nor was it until some time after the publication of the 2nd edition of my _Analecta_ that it occurred to me that it might signify a wicker or _sallow_ basket (such as is still in use for the capture of eels), from Lat. _sporta_, whence the German

    Notes and Queries, Number 15, February 9, 1850 Various

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Never heard of this until NotXButX tweeted it today.

    March 11, 2016