spireとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English 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 (複数形 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.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, chapter 12

     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, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict‎^[1]:

     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.

5. 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, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ix]:

     the spire and top of praises

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

動詞

spire (三人称単数 現在形 spires, 現在分詞 spiring, 過去形および過去分詞形 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, The Faerie Queene, III.5:

     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. […], 2nd edition, London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], published 1708, OCLC 13320837: