Talk:spare

Definitions
I may be wrong, but to me it looks as if the definitions are rather randomly mixed between the adjective, noun and verb sections. For example, under Adjective: "To use frugally or stintingly, as that which is scarce or valuable; to retain or keep unused; to save". Is that not a definition of a verb? "The man used the machine frugally". Replacing "to use" with "used" etc. would make more sense.

-- 85.30.174.70 08:54, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Tea room discussion
There is a missing verb sense, but I'm not certain which etymology it belongs under (or if it's a third), "go spare"/"went spare" meaning go/went crazy, become/became very angry. "goes spare" does get some use in this meaning, but nowhere near as much as go/went. I'm not sure that it is used in the present tense though, as all the bgc hits (at leas the first 20) for "going spare" are for a completely different sense (e.g. "there's some bacon going spare if you want any"). Thryduulf 22:41, 21 May 2008 (UTC)


 * That's not a verb, but a modifier of some sort, IMHO probably an adjective. OTOH, if it's really only used with the verb go:, then it should be at go spare, not at spare. —Ruakh TALK 23:28, 21 May 2008 (UTC)

Could it be it is "went spur"? ie a sudden change of mood like a horse jabbed by a spur.

RFM discussion: November 2017–May 2018

 * See Talk:go spare.

RFV discussion: July–August 2021
Rfv-sense: slow. Apparently there's a quote by Grose out there Queenofnortheast (talk) 17:40, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * More likely Francis Grose's dictionary of the Vulgar tongue. Kiwima (talk) 22:28, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * His provincial glossary actually, but it is only a mention Wubble You (talk) 12:24, 9 August 2021 (UTC)


 * the best OED says is 1746– in south-western dial. glossaries, etc.. Probably not enough for WT. Wubble You (talk) 19:38, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

RFV-failed Kiwima (talk) 22:26, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

Clarifying verb sense
(1) Missing ditransitive verb sense of English 'spare' related to sense 3 -- e.g. "Can you spare John five dollars?" -- which (interestingly) seems to only sound fully natural when used in questions. I believe this is the sense represented as 9a of verb 1 'spare' in the OED. (2) the current entry obscures the fact that both etymologies of spare share a common source -- senses 2 and 3 of the verb make this most clear (e.g. sense 3 could be reframed as 'give away spare X'). This claim is supported by etymonline in their etymology for the adjectival form of 'spare' ("from the same root as spare v.") Raunderhill (talk) 17:11, 24 April 2023 (UTC)