spelk

English

Etymology

From Middle English spelke, from Old English spilc, spelc (“a splint”), from Proto-West Germanic *spelku, from Proto-Germanic *spelkō, *spalkō, *spalkuz (“bast, splint”). Cognate with Old Norse spjalkir (“bars, rails”, plural).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɛlk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛlk

Noun

spelk (plural spelks)

1. (Northumbria, Cumbria) A splinter, usually of wood.
2. (Northumbria, Cumbria) A wooden splinter caught under the skin.
3. (Northern English) A rod or switch.
4. (aerospace) Unusably short lengths of fibre-reinforced material, such as prepreg.

Verb

spelk (third-person singular simple present spelks, present participle spelking, simple past and past participle spelked)

1. (transitive, Northern English) To use a spelk in or on.
   • 1884, Notes and Queries, page 193:

     A spelk is often a hazel of two or three years' growth. It is pointed at each end, and is three or four feet long, and is placed at right angles with the thatch to hold it down. Sometimes a bit of very neat work is displayed in the spelking of the thatch […]

References

• Todd's Geordie Words and Phrases, George Todd, Newcastle, 1977
• Frank Graham, editor (1987), “SPELK”, in The New Geordie Dictionary, Rothbury, Northumberland: Butler Publishing, →ISBN.
• Bill Griffiths, editor (2004), “spelk”, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear: Northumbria University Press, →ISBN.
• Scott Dobson, Dick Irwin “spelk”, in Newcastle 1970s: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎, archived from the original on 2024-09-05.
• “Spelk”, in Palgrave’s Word List: Durham & Tyneside Dialect Group‎, archived from the original on 2024-09-05, from F[rancis] M[ilnes] T[emple] Palgrave, A List of Words and Phrases in Everyday Use by the Natives of Hetton-le-Hole in the County of Durham […] (Publications of the English Dialect Society; 74), London: Published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, Oxford University Press, 1896, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• kelps, skelp