Dictionary

spurtle en · NOUN · etymology 1

Etymology

From Scots spurtle, spurtill (“potstick, spatula”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps an alteration of Middle English spatyl, spatule, from Old French espatule (“spatula”). If so, then doublet of spattle and spatula.

Meanings

1. Either of two Scottish kitchen implements made of wood: a flat one for turning oatcakes, or a stick for stirring porridge.
   • "It was till lately believed by the ploughmen of Clydesdale, that if they repeated the rhyme Fairy, fairy, bake me a bannock and roast me a collop, And I'll gie ye a spurtle off my gadend! three several times on turning their cattle at the terminations of ridges, they would find the said fare prepared for them on reaching the end of the fourth furrow." 1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 353:
   • One day they built a fire in the yard and made a black kettle of apple butter so big that when they stood over it and stirred the apple mash with spurtles, the scene put Ada in mind of the witches in Macbeth working at their brew. 1997, Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 311:

Forms

Translations (1)

pl drewniany kij do mieszania owsianki (kitchen implement)

spurtle en · VERB · etymology 2

Etymology

From spurt + -le. According to the Poly-Olbion project, coined by poet Michael Drayton in 1606.

Meanings

1. To spurt, spatter or sputter; to spurt in a scattering manner.
   • Upon the head hee lent so violent a stroke, That the poore emptie skull, like some thin potsheard broke, The braines and mingled blood, were spertled on the wall 1612, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, song 2 p. 29:

Forms