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Origin and history of spae

spae(v.)

"foretell, divine, predict from signs," c. 1300, spa, a Northern and Scottish word, from Old Norse spa, cognate with Danish spaa "prophesy" and related to Old Saxon spahi, Old High German spahi "wise, skillful," Old High German spehon "to spy" (see spy (v.)).

Also as a noun, c. 1300, "a prediction, a prophecy." Related: Spae-book "book containing directions for telling fortunes;" spaeman; spaewife.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to spae

spy(v.)

mid-13c., spien, "to watch stealthily," from Old French espiier "observe, watch closely, spy on, find out," probably from Frankish *spehon or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic *spehon- (source also of Old High German *spehon "to look out for, scout, spy," German spähen "to spy," Middle Dutch spien). These are the Germanic survivals of the productive PIE root *spek- "to observe."

Old English had spyrian "make a track, go, pursue; ask about, investigate," also a noun spyrigend "investigator, inquirer." Italian spiare, Spanish espiar also are Germanic loan-words.

The meaning "catch sight of, discover at a distance or from a place of concealment" is from c. 1300. The intransitive meaning "play the spy, conduct surveillance" is from mid-15c. The children's game I spy was so called by 1946.

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