why spider? why not spinner?

Why is it 'spider' in english, not 'spinner' like in other Germanic languages?

English spider comes from Old English spīþra / spīdre (forms vary by dialect/manuscript), from a Proto-Germanic root related to spinning/thread-making. Cognates include:

  • German: Spinne
  • Dutch: spin
  • Icelandic: spiða / related forms
  • Old Norse: spinnari (“spinner”)

So the semantic origin is “spinner”.

The interesting part is the intrusive or epenthetic consonant — the d in spider. English does this fairly often historically:

  • thunder ← Proto-Germanic þunraz (cf. German Donner)
  • spindle ← related to spin
  • sound shifts involving n+r, ð+r, or l+r clusters often developed stop consonants in English

In spider, linguists generally think the d developed between consonants as a phonetic transition sound, something like:

spi-r → spid-r → spider

Similar to how:

  • Old English thunor became thunder
  • empty gained a /p/ sound from earlier forms without it


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