An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Speer

by Friedrich Kluge

Speer, masculine, ‘spear,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German spër, masculine; common to Teutonic, with the corresponding terms, Old Icelandic spjǫr, plural, ‘spear,’ Anglo-Saxon spëre, English spear, Dutch speer, Old Saxon spër (from Teutonic spër is derived Old French espier). It is uncertain how the word is connected with Latin sparus, ‘hunting-spear’; it may be cognate, or the two languages may have borrowed it from a third. Its relation to Sparren and Sporn is doubtful.