Etymology Explorer › Middle High German

Where does “spanne” come from?

spanne (Middle High German) comes from Old High German spanna, from Proto-Germanic spannō, from Proto-Indo-European (s)pend- — to stretch.

Ancestry of “spanne”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old High Germanspanna—
2Proto-Germanicspannōspan, handbreadth
3Proto-Indo-European(s)pend-to stretch

Words derived from “spanne”

  • Zeitspanne
  • Spanne
  • Betriebstemperaturspanne
Every word from Proto-Indo-European (s)pend- →