spar

Meaning

Noun

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

Verb

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

Verb

1. To fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat.
2. To strike with the feet or spurs, as cocks do.
3. To contest in words; to wrangle.

Synonyms

pole

bar

shaft

rod

staff

stake

mast

stave

sparring

box

📦

handle

argue

squabble

fight

stick

brabble

cane

boom

💥

baton

rafter

scrap

longeron

boxing

dispute

beam

jar

🫙

joist

main

pikestaff

practice

practise

prop

pugilism

quarrel

schist

scuffle

slate

sparry

spear

strife

stringer

struggle

support

tissue

tourney

tug

tussle

web

wrangle

yard

Translations

palo

pal

espar

mastro

Stange

paal

pau

trudis

barra

hasta

Barre

barra

vara

asser

contus

Pronounced as (IPA)

/spɑː/

Etymology

Cognate with Dutch: spar

Cognate with German: Sparren

Cognate with Danish: sparre

Cognate with Albanian: shparr

Cognate with Low German: sparre

Cognate with German: sich sperren

Cognate with Icelandic: sperrast

Cognate with German: Sparkalk

Cognate with Old English: spæren

In summary

From Middle English sparre (“spar, rafter, beam”) (noun), sparren (“to close, bar”) (verb), from Middle Dutch sparre or Middle Low German Sparre, all 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.