span

From Middle English spanne, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spannō (“span, handbreadth”). Cognate with Dutch span, spanne, German Spanne. The sense “pair of horses” is probably from Old English ġespan, ġespann (“a joining; a fastening together; clasp; yoke”), from Proto-West Germanic [Term?]. Cognate with Dutch gespan, German Gespann.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /spæn/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /spæːn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æn

span (plural spans)

1. The full width of an open hand from the end of the thumb to the end of the little finger used as an informal unit of length.
2. Any of various traditional units of length approximating this distance, especially the English handspan of 9 inches forming ⅛ fathom and equivalent to 22.86 cm.
3. (by extension) A small space or a brief portion of time.

   He has a short attention span and gets bored within minutes.

   • 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

     "Why in ten thousand years scarce will the rain and storms lessen a mountain top by a span in thickness?"

   • 1738, [Alexander Pope], “Stanza VI”, in The Universal Prayer. […], London [actually Edinburgh]: […] [Thomas Ruddiman] for R[obert] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 5:

     Yet not to Earth's contracted Span,
     Thy Goodneſs let me bound; […]

   • 1699, George Farquhar, The Constant Couple:

     Life's but a span; I'll every inch enjoy.

   • 2007, John Zerzan, Silence:

     The unsilent present is a time of evaporating attention spans,

4. A portion of something by length; a subsequence.
   • 2004, Robert Harris, Robert Warner, The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace, page 759:

     For example, in OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Word, each span of text can have a style that defines key characteristics about the text: • What font it uses • Whether it's normal, bolded, italicized, […]

5. (architecture, construction) The spread or extent of an arch or between its abutments, or of a beam, girder, truss, roof, bridge, or the like, between supports.
   • 1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5:

     The force of the explosion demolished one pair of piers and two spans of the bridge crashed down into the river on top of the barges.

6. (architecture, construction) The length of a cable, wire, rope, chain between two consecutive supports.
7. (nautical) A rope having its ends made fast so that a purchase can be hooked to the bight; also, a rope made fast in the center so that both ends can be used.
8. (US, Canada) A pair of horses or other animals driven together; usually, such a pair of horses when similar in color, form, and action.
9. (mathematics) The space of all linear combinations of vectors within a set.
10. (computing) The time required to execute a parallel algorithm on an infinite number of processors, i.e. the shortest distance across a directed acyclic graph representing the computation steps.
    • 2017, Ananya Kumar, Guy E. Blelloch, Robert Harper, “Parallel Functional Arrays”, in ACM SIGPLAN Notices, →DOI:

      We use the term span (also called depth, or dependence depth) to refer to the number of parallel steps assuming an unbounded number of processors.

11. wingspan of a plane or bird

• spang (Scotland)

• chord

From Middle English spannen, from Old English spannan, from Proto-Germanic *spannaną (“to stretch, span”). Cognate with German spannen, Dutch spannen.

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /spæn/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /spæːn/
• Rhymes: -æn

span (third-person singular simple present spans, present participle spanning, simple past and past participle spanned)

1. (transitive) To extend through the distance between or across.

   The suspension bridge spanned the canyon.

   • 1855–1858, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Philip the Second, King of Spain, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC:

     The rivers were spanned by arches of solid masonry.

   • 2023 March 8, “Network News: Grant for repairs at Gaunless Bridge”, in RAIL, number 978, page 9:

     Completed in 1823, Gaunless Bridge was designed by George Stephenson to span the River Gaunless in West Auckland, forming part of a line serving Witton Park Colliery.

2. (transitive) To extend through (a time period).

   The parking lot spans three acres.

   The novel spans three centuries.

3. (transitive) To measure by the span of the hand with the fingers extended, or with the fingers encompassing the object.

   to span a space or distance; to span a cylinder

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Isaiah 48:13, column 2:

     Mine hand alſo hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath ſpanned the heauens: when I call vnto them, they ſtand vp together.

4. (mathematics) To generate an entire space by means of linear combinations.
5. (intransitive, US, dated) To be matched, as horses.
6. (transitive) To fetter, as a horse; to hobble.

From Middle English span, from Old English spann, from Proto-Germanic *spann, first and third person singular preterit indicative of Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”).

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian, General American) IPA^(key): /spæn/
• Rhymes: -æn

span

1. (dated, now uncommon) simple past of spin
   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw […], Act I:

     But when Adam delued, and Eue ſpan,
     VVho was then a Gentleman?

   • 1891, H[enry] Rider Haggard, “How Hall of Lithdale Took Tidings to Iceland”, in Eric Brighteyes, 2nd edition, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 204:

     So they went in to where Gudruda sat spinning in the hall, singing as she span.

   • 2014 September 29, Reuters, “Five spectators in critical condition following stunt truck accident”, in Irish Independent‎, archived from the original on 11 March 2016:

     Five spectators remained in critical condition on Monday, a day after they were injured when a giant pick-up truck span out of control during a stunt show in a Dutch town, killing three people, local officials said.

• spun (more common)

• wheelspan

• span-new (probably etymologically unrelated)

• ANPs, NPAS, NSPA, PANs, PNAS, PNAs, Pans, SNAP, naps, pans, snap

• IPA^(key): /spɑn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: span
• Rhymes: -ɑn

From older gespan.

span n (plural spannen, diminutive spannetje n)

1. A span, a team (pair or larger team of draught animals). [from 17th c.]
2. A cart or instrument with a team of draught animals. [from 18th c.]
3. A romantic pair, couple. [from 19th c.]

• driespan
• tweespan
• vierspan
• zesspan

• Afrikaans: span

From spannen

span m or f (plural spannen, diminutive spannetje n)

1. (dated) span (distance between extended thumb and little finger)
2. (dated) span (interval of space or time)

• spanne

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

span

1. inflection of spannen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. imperative

• snap

span n (genitive singular spans, no plural)

1. hurry, haste
2. (physics) induction

• “span” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)

span

1. Alternative form of spanne

Borrowed from Dutch gespannen.

span

1. tense

• → Dutch: no spang

Deverbal from spana.

• IPA^(key): /spɑːn/
• Rhymes: -ɑːn

span n

1. (colloquial) an act of spying (something)

   Jag hade fått span på en dam som kan få en att bli monogam

   I had spied a lady that can make one monogamous

2. (colloquial) stakeout

• span in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

From Low German or Dutch spannen (“to yoke, stretch”).

span n (plural spannen, diminutive spantsje)

1. span, team (pair of draught animals in a team)
2. pair, couple

• “span (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011