different between cause vs spur
cause
English
Etymology
From Middle English cause, borrowed from Old French cause (“a cause, a thing”), from Latin causa (“reason, sake, cause”), in Middle English also "a thing". Origin uncertain. See accuse, excuse, recuse, ruse. Displaced native Middle English sake (“cause, reason”) (from Old English sacu (“cause”)), Middle English andweorc, andwork (“matter, cause”) (from Old English andweorc (“matter, thing, cause”)).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kôz, IPA(key): /k??z/, [k?o?z?]
- (General American) IPA(key): /k?z/, [k???z?]
- Rhymes: -??z
- Homophones: caws, 'cause; cores (non-rhotic dialects)
Noun
cause (countable and uncountable, plural causes)
- (countable, often with of, typically of adverse results) The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cause
- (uncountable, especially with for and a bare noun) Sufficient reason for a state, as of emotion.
- Synonyms: grounds, justification
- (countable) A goal, aim or principle, especially one which transcends purely selfish ends.
- 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord
- The part they take against me is from zeal to the cause.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:goal
- 1796, Edmund Burke, a letter to a noble lord
- (obsolete) Sake; interest; advantage.
- I did it not for his cause.
- (countable, obsolete) Any subject of discussion or debate; a matter; an affair.
- (countable, law) A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action.
Derived terms
Translations
See also
- effect
Verb
cause (third-person singular simple present causes, present participle causing, simple past and past participle caused)
- (transitive) To set off an event or action.
- Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
- (ditransitive) To actively produce as a result, by means of force or authority.
- I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days.
- To assign or show cause; to give a reason; to make excuse.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)
Derived terms
- causation
- causer
Translations
Further reading
- cause at OneLook Dictionary Search
- cause in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- cause in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Anagrams
- -sauce, sauce
Asturian
Verb
cause
- first/third-person singular present subjunctive of causar
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /koz/
- Homophones: causent, causes
Etymology 1
From Old French cause, borrowed from Classical Latin causa. Compare chose, an inherited doublet.
Noun
cause f (plural causes)
- cause
- Antonym: conséquence
- (law) case (a legal proceeding)
Derived terms
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the main entry.
Verb
cause
- inflection of causer:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Further reading
- “cause” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Anagrams
- sauce, sceau
Italian
Noun
cause f pl
- plural of causa
Middle English
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French cause.
Noun
cause (plural causes)
- cause
- 14th Century, Chaucer, General Prologue
- He knew the cause of everich maladye
- He knew the cause of every illness
- He knew the cause of everich maladye
- 14th Century, Chaucer, General Prologue
Descendants
- English: cause
Norman
Etymology
From Old French cause, borrowed from Latin causa.
Noun
cause f (plural causes)
- (Jersey, law) case
Old French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin causa, whence the inherited chose.
Noun
cause f (oblique plural causes, nominative singular cause, nominative plural causes)
- cause
Descendants
- Middle English: cause
- English: cause
- Middle French: cause
- French: cause
- Norman: cause
Portuguese
Verb
cause
- first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of causar
- third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of causar
- third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of causar
- third-person singular (você) negative imperative of causar
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?kause/, [?kau?.se]
Verb
cause
- Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of causar.
- First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of causar.
- Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of causar.
- Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of causar.
cause From the web:
- what causes hiccups
- what causes high blood pressure
- what causes kidney stones
- what causes hemorrhoids
- what caused the great depression
- what causes diarrhea
- what causes canker sores
- what causes vertigo
spur
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /sp??/
- (General American) IPA(key): /sp?/
- Rhymes: -??(?)
Etymology 1
From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spura, spora, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sper-, *sperw- (“to twitch, push, fidget, be quick”).
Noun
spur (plural spurs)
- A rigid implement, often roughly y-shaped, that is fixed to one's heel for the purpose of prodding a horse. Often worn by, and emblematic of, the cowboy or the knight.
- Meronyms: rowel, prick
- 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 22:
- Two sorts of spurs seem to have been in use about the time of the Conquest, one called a pryck, having only a single point like the gaffle of a fighting cock; the other consisting of a number of points of considerable length, radiating from and revolving on a center, thence named the rouelle or wheel spur.
- A jab given with the spurs.
- 1832, The Atheneum (volume 31, page 493)
- I had hardly said the word, when Kit jumped into the saddle, and gave his horse a whip and a spur — and off it cantered, as if it were in as great a hurry to be married as Kit himself.
- 1832, The Atheneum (volume 31, page 493)
- (figuratively) Anything that inspires or motivates, as a spur does a horse.
- An appendage or spike pointing rearward, near the foot, for instance that of a rooster.
- Any protruding part connected at one end, for instance a highway that extends from another highway into a city.
- Roots, tree roots.
- (geology) A mountain that shoots from another mountain or range and extends some distance in a lateral direction, or at right angles.
- A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.
- (carpentry) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.
- (architecture) The short wooden buttress of a post.
- (architecture) A projection from the round base of a column, occupying the angle of a square plinth upon which the base rests, or bringing the bottom bed of the base to a nearly square form. It is generally carved in leafage.
- Ergotized rye or other grain.
- A wall in a fortification that crosses a part of a rampart and joins to an inner wall.
- (shipbuilding) A piece of timber fixed on the bilgeways before launching, having the upper ends bolted to the vessel's side.
- (shipbuilding) A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam cannot be placed.
- (mining) A branch of a vein.
- (rail transport) A very short branch line of a railway line.
- (transport) A short branch road of a motorway, freeway or major road.
- (botany) A short thin side shoot from a branch, especially one that bears fruit or, in conifers, the shoots that bear the leaves.
Derived terms
- spur gear
- spur-leather
- spur-of-the-moment
- spur road
Translations
Verb
spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)
- (transitive) To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.
- 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act V, Scene III, line 339:
- Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!
- 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, Act V, Scene III, line 339:
- (transitive) To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object
- Synonyms: incite, stimulate, instigate, impel, drive; see also Thesaurus:incite
- 1599, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, Act III, Scene IV, line 4.
- My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...
- (transitive) To put spurs on.
- (intransitive) To press forward; to travel in great haste.
Derived terms
- spur on
Translations
Etymology 2
See sparrow.
Noun
spur (plural spurs)
- A tern.
Etymology 3
Short for spurious.
Noun
spur (plural spurs)
- (electronics) A spurious tone, one that interferes with a signal in a circuit and is often masked underneath that signal.
Etymology 4
Noun
spur (plural spurs)
- The track of an animal, such as an otter; a spoor.
Translations
Etymology 5
Verb
spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)
- (obsolete, dialectal) Alternative form of speer.
- 1638, Thomas Heywood, "The Rape of Lucrece. A true Roman Tragedy", in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood, Vol. V, John Pearson, 1874, pages 230 & 231.
- The Pall Mall Magazine, Vol. 33, 1904, page 435.
- 1638, Thomas Heywood, "The Rape of Lucrece. A true Roman Tragedy", in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood, Vol. V, John Pearson, 1874, pages 230 & 231.
Anagrams
- Prus, purs, surp
Middle English
Noun
spur
- Alternative form of spore
Scots
Alternative forms
- sparra
- spug
- spuggie
- speug
Noun
spur (plural spurs)
- sparrow
References
- “spur” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
spur From the web:
- what spurred the march revolution of 1917
- what spurred the industrial revolution
- what spurred the new economy
- what spurred the growth of the temperance movement
- what spurred the creation of the populist party
- what spurred the rise of public schooling
- what spurred the beginning of the romantic era
- what spurred the renaissance
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