Spireとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: spīr, spīʹər, IPA: /spaɪə/, /ˈspaɪ.ə/
• (General American) enPR: spīʹər, IPA: /ˈspaɪ.ɚ/
• 韻: -aɪə(ɹ)

語源 1

From 中期英語 spire, spyre, spier, spir, from 古期英語 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.

名詞

spire (plural spires)

1. (now rare) The stalk or stem of a plant. [from 10th c.]
2. A young shoot of a plant; a spear. [from 14th c.]
   • 1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Chapter 12”, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

     Clara had pulled a button from a hollyhock spire, and was breaking it to get the seeds.

3. Any of various tall grasses, rushes, or sedges, such as the marram, the reed canary-grass, etc.
4. 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.

   • 2018 July 17, Autumn Spanne, “Check out these crazy rock formations across the United States”, in CNN‎:

     This park’s strange and beautiful rock formations were formed by the Yellowstone River and various streams that have cut through the rock over millions of years, carving out hoodoos, spires and caprocks. The name Makoshika comes from a Lakota word for badlands.

5. (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.

6. 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

7. (mining) A tube or fuse for communicating fire to the charge in blasting.

派生語

• broached spire

動詞

spire (third-person singular simple present spires, present participle spiring, simple past and past participle spired)

1. (of a seed, plant etc.) to sprout, to send forth the early shoots of growth; to germinate. [from 14th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     In gentle Ladies breste and bounteous race / Of woman kind it fayrest Flowre doth spyre, / And beareth fruit of honour and all chast desyre.

   • 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.

2. To grow upwards rather than develop horizontally. [from 14th c.]
3. (transitive) To furnish with a spire.

語源 2

From Old French spirer, and its source, Latin spīrō (“to breathe”).

動詞

spire (third-person singular simple present spires, present participle spiring, simple past and past participle spired)

1. (intransitive, obsolete) To breathe. [14th–16th c.]

語源 3

From Middle French spire.

名詞

spire (plural spires)

1. One of the sinuous foldings of a serpent or other reptile; a coil. [from 16th c.]
   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Alexander’s Feast; or, The Power of Musique. An Ode, in Honour of St. Cecelia’s Day.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     A dragon's fiery form bely'd the god:
     Sublime on radiant spires he rode.

2. A spiral. [from 17th c.]
3. (geometry) The part of a spiral generated in one revolution of the straight line about the pole.

アナグラム

• Peris, Piers, Pires, Speir, Spier, peris, piers, pries, prise, resip, ripes, spier