Etymology 1
From Middle English spire, spyre, spier, spir, from Old English spīr, from Proto-Germanic *spīrō, *spīrǭ (“peak; point; tip; stalk”). Cognate with Dutch spier, German Low German Spier, German Spier, Spiere, Danish spir, Norwegian spir and spire, Swedish spira, Icelandic spíra.
Noun
spire (plural spires)
- (now rare) The stalk or stem of a plant. [from 10th c.]
- A young shoot of a plant; a spear. [from 14th c.]
- Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
- A sharp or tapering point. [from 16th c.]
1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:A beech wood with silver firs in it rolled down the face of the hill, and the maze of leafless twigs and dusky spires cut sharp against the soft blueness of the evening sky.
- (architecture) A tapering structure built on a roof or tower, especially as one of the central architectural features of a church or cathedral roof. [from 16th c.]
The spire of the church rose high above the town.
- The top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit. [from 17th c.]
c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ix]:the spire and top of praises
- (mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.
Translations
tapering architectural structure
- Bulgarian: шпил m (špil)
- Catalan: cuculla (ca), agulla (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 尖塔 (zh) (jiāntǎ), 尖頂/尖顶 (zh) (jiānding)
- Czech: špička (cs) f, věžička (cs) f
- Danish: spir c
- Dutch: spits (nl) m or f, torenspits (nl) m or f
- Finnish: suippotorni, torni (fi), spiira (fi)
- French: flèche (fr) f
- German: Turmspitze (de) f, Turmhelm m
- Hungarian: templomtorony (hu), toronytető (hu), toronycsúcs, toronysisak (hu)
- Icelandic: spíra f, turnspíra f
- Ido: flecho (io)
- Irish: spuaic f, stuaic f
- Italian: guglia (it) f, pinnacolo (it) m, cuspide (it) f
- Japanese: 尖塔 (ja) (せんとう, sentō)
- Korean: 첨탑 (ko) (cheomtap)
- Marathi: मनोरा (manorā), मेरुशिखर (meruśikhar)
- Maori: koinga, koeko
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: spir m
- Nynorsk: spir m
- Polish: iglica (pl) f
- Portuguese: agulha (pt) f, flecha (pt) f, coruchéu m
- Russian: шпиль (ru) m (špilʹ), шпиц (ru) m (špic)
- Spanish: chapitel m, aguja (es) f
- Swedish: tornspira c, spira (sv) c
- Ukrainian: шпиль m (špylʹ)
- Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
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top, or uppermost point, of anything; the summit
Verb
spire (third-person singular simple present spires, present participle spiring, simple past and past participle spired)
- (of a seed, plant etc.) to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate. [from 14th c.]
1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:It is not so apt to spire up as the other sorts, being more inclined to branch into arms.
- To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally. [from 14th c.]
- (transitive) To furnish with a spire.
Anagrams
- Peris, Piers, Pires, Speir, Spier, peris, piers, pries, prise, resip, ripes, spier