speel

Meanings

Verb

• To climb.
• To talk at length, to spiel.
• To run.
• To lake, play, sport, take amusement.

Noun

• A story; a spiel.
• A splinter; a strip of wood or metal.
• A game.

Origin

• From Old Scots speill, of obscure origin. From or akin to Old Scots spelare. Probably from Middle Dutch spelen, see spiel. Alternately, representing a continuation of Middle English spilen, from Old English spilian.
• From English dialectal speel, short for bonspiel. Related to spiel.
• Probably from Afrikaans speel. Compare Middle English spel. spell, and shpiel.
• Possibly related to spile.
• Perhaps continuing Middle English spilen ("to revel, play"), from Old English spilian ("to revel, play"), from Proto-West Germanic *spilōn. Cognate with Dutch spelen ("to play"), German spielen ("to play"), Luxembourgish spillen ("to play"), Icelandic spila ("to play"), Faroese spæla ("to play"), Swedish spela ("to play"), Danish spille ("to play"), Norwegian spille ("to play").
• From Proto-West Germanic *spil ("dance, game").