spell

Etymology 1

From Middle English spell, spel, from Old English spell (“news, story”), from Proto-Germanic *spellą (“speech, account, tale”), from Proto-Indo-European *spel- (“to tell”) or from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to speak, to sound”) with the s-mobile prefix. Cognate with dialectal German Spill, Icelandic spjall (“discussion, talk”), spjalla (“to discuss, to talk”), guðspjall (“gospel”) and Albanian fjalë (“word”).

noun

1. Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
   He cast a spell to cure warts.
2. A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
   under a spell
   Skies are not so black / Mary took me back / Mary has broken your spell 1962, Marty Robbins (lyrics and music), “Devil Woman”
   I believe your love has placed its spell on me 2020, Deftones, The Spell of Mathematics
3. (obsolete) Speech, discourse.

verb

1. To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
   […] although the Kings Jealousie was thus particular to her, his Affection was as general to others […] Above all, for a time he was much speld with Elianor Talbot […] 1647, George Buck, The History and Life and Reigne of Richard the Third, London, Book 4, p. 116
   1697, John Dryden (translator), Georgics, Book 3 in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 109, lines 444-446, This, gather’d in the Planetary Hour, With noxious Weeds, and spell’d with Words of pow’r Dire Stepdames in the Magick Bowl infuse;
   But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me 1817, John Keats, “To a Friend who sent me some Roses”, in Poems, London: C. & J. Ollier, page 83

Etymology 2

From Middle English spellen, from Anglo-Norman espeler, espeleir, Old French espeller, espeler (compare Modern French épeler), from Frankish *spelōn, merged with native Old English spellian (“to tell, speak”), both eventually from Proto-Germanic *spellōną (“to speak”). Related with etymology 1. The sense “indicate a future event” probably in part a backformation from forespell (literally “to tell in advance”).

verb

1. (intransitive, transitive, sometimes with “out”) To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word.
   I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
   "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible. 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
3. (transitive) Of letters: to compose (a word).
   The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.
   In Esperanto each letter has only one sound, and each sound is represented in only one way. The words are pronounced exactly as spelt, every letter being sounded. 2008, Helen Fryer, The Esperanto Teacher, BiblioBazaar, LLC, page 13
   Welcome to the League Aiming to Menace and Overthrow Spies! You realize that spells “LAMOS”? Mar 13 2006, Richard Clark, “The Dream Teens”, in Totally Spies!: Undercover, season 4, episode 1, spoken by Tim Scam (Matt Charles and Michael Gough), Marathon Media, via Teletoon
4. (transitive, figurative, with “out”) To clarify; to explain in detail.
   Please spell it out for me.
   When we get elected, for instance, we get one of these, and we are pretty much told what is in it, and it is our responsibility to read it and understand it, and if we do not, the Ethics Committee, we can call them any time of day and ask them to spell it out for us[…] 2003, U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
5. (transitive) To indicate that (some event) will occur; typically followed by a single-word noun.
   This spells trouble.
6. To constitute; to measure.
7. (obsolete) To speak, to declaim.
8. (obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
   1770, Thomas Warton, “Ode on the Approach of Summer” in A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes, London: G. Pearch, Volume 1, p. 278, As thro’ the caverns dim I wind, Might I that legend find, By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes,

Etymology 3

From Middle English spelen, from Old English spelian (“to represent, take or stand in the place of another, act as a representative of another”), akin to Middle English spale (“a rest or break”), Old English spala (“representative, substitute”).

verb

1. (transitive) To work in place of (someone).
   to spell the helmsman
2. (transitive) To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.
   They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.
3. (intransitive, colloquial) To rest from work for a time.

noun

1. A shift (of work); (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
2. (informal) A definite period (of work or other activity).
   A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
   I had a job in the great North Woods / Workin' as a cook for a spell / But I never did like it all that much / And one day the ax just fell 1975, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Tangled Up in Blue”
   Despite his ill-fated spell at Anfield, he received a warm reception from the same Liverpool fans he struggled to win over before being sacked midway through last season. April 22, 2012, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport
3. (colloquial) An indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance.
   Even Mrs. Harker seems to lose sight of her trouble for whole spells. … When he had spoken, Mina's long spell of silence made me look at her. 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 24, in Dracula, HTML edition
   So after a short spell in the brass foundry the wisest course was to follow with a similar period in the steel foundry, where much important work was done, including the manufacture of centres for wheels. 1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 343
   … Class 37s became synonymous with the depot, and over the years more than a third of the class had a spell allocated to the shed. June 17 2020, John Crosse, “Thornaby's traction transition”, in Rail, page 65
4. A period of rest; time off.
5. (colloquial, US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.
6. (cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.

Etymology 4

Origin uncertain; perhaps a form of speld.

noun

1. (dialectal) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.
   To swadle a bowe much about wyth bandes, verye seldome dothe anye good, excepte it be to kepe downe a spel in the backe.
2. The wooden bat in the game of trap ball, or knurr and spell.