Etymology
1. "expel saliva," O.E.
spittan (Anglian),
spætan (W.Saxon), from PIE
*sp(y)eu-, of imitative origin (see spew). Not the usual O.E. word for this;
spætlan (see spittle) and
spiwan (see spew) are more common. Meaning "to eject saliva (at someone or something) as a gesture of contempt" is in O.E. The noun is attested from c.1300. Meaning "the very likeness" is attested from 1602 (e.g.
spitting image, attested from 1901); cf. Fr.
craché in same sense. Military phrase
spit and polish first recorded 1895.
Spitball is from 1846 in the schoolboy sense, 1905 in the baseball sense.
2. The noun is from Middle English spit, spite, spete, spette, spyte, spytte (“rod on which meat is cooked; rod used as a torture instrument; short spear; point of a spear; spine in the fin of a fish; pointed object; dagger symbol; land projecting into the sea”), from Old English spitu (“rod on which meat is cooked; spit”), from Proto-Germanic *spitō (“rod; skewer; spike”), *spituz (“rod on which meat is cooked; stick”), from Proto-Indo-European *speyd-, *spey- (“sharp; sharp stick”). The English word is cognate with Dutch spit, Low German Spitt (“pike, spear; spike; skewer; spit”), Danish spid, Swedish spett (“skewer; spit; type of crowbar”).
3. The verb is derived from the noun, or from Middle English spiten (“to put on a spit; to impale”), from spit, spite: see above. The English verb is cognate with Middle Dutch speten, spitten (modern Dutch speten), Middle Low German speten (Low German spitten, modern German spießen (“to skewer, to spear”), spissen (now dialectal)) and Danish spidde. See: Dutch '
speten', Low Saxon 'spitten', German, old spelling '
spießen', Danish '
spidde'.
Verbs referencing "spit"
English
spew, English
spud, English
spate, Sranan
spiti.