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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

spavin.

A bony swelling which develops in a horse's leg where the shank and splint bone meet, caused by inflammation of the cartilage connecting those bones; also, a similar swelling caused by inflammation of the hock bones.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈspævɪn/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. A bony swelling which develops in a horse's leg where the shank and splint bone meet, caused by inflammation of the cartilage connecting those bones; also, a similar swelling caused by inflammation of the hock bones.

    countable
  2. A disease of horses caused by this bony swelling (etymology 1, noun sense 1.1).

    uncountable
  3. A similar disease causing a person's leg to be lame.

    broadly · uncountable
Where this word comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English spavein, spaveine (“swelling on horse’s leg causing lameness; disease causing lameness in horses”), from Old French espavain, a variant of esparvain, esprevain, esprevin (modern French éparvin, épervin). The further etymology is unknown; one suggestion is that it is from Frankish *sparwan (“sparrow”), though this is seen as quite tenuous. The verb is derived from the noun.

verb/ˈspævɪn/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To cause (a horse or its leg) to have spavin (noun etymology 1, noun sense 1.2).

    rare · transitive
  2. To impair or injure (someone or something).

    figuratively · rare · transitive
Where this word comes from

The noun is derived from Middle English spavein, spaveine (“swelling on horse’s leg causing lameness; disease causing lameness in horses”), from Old French espavain, a variant of esparvain, esprevain, esprevin (modern French éparvin, épervin). The further etymology is unknown; one suggestion is that it is from Frankish *sparwan (“sparrow”), though this is seen as quite tenuous. The verb is derived from the noun.

noun/ˈspævɪn/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. The stratum of earth underneath a coal deposit.

    rare · transitive
Where this word comes from

Origin unknown.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.