different between droppings vs spoor

English

Noun

droppings

1. plural of dropping

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Any dates and refs for this?”)From Afrikaans spoor, from Dutch spoor, akin to Old English and Old Norse spor (whence Danish spor), and German Spur, all from Proto-Germanic *spur?. Compare spurn.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sp??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sp??/, /sp??/
• Homophones: spore (in some accents)

Noun

spoor (usually uncountable, plural spoors)

1. The track, trail, droppings or scent of an animal
   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VIII

     Even poor Nobs appeared dejected as we quit the compound and set out upon the well-marked spoor of the abductor.

   • 1971, William S. Burroughs, The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead, page 10

     Now he has picked up the spoor of drunken vomit and there is the doll sprawled against a wall, his pants streaked with urine.

Translations

Verb

spoor (third-person singular simple present spoors, present participle spooring, simple past and past participle spoored)

1. (transitive) To track an animal by following its spoor

Anagrams

• proso, roops, sopor, sporo-

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spo?r/
• Hyphenation: spoor
• Rhymes: -o?r

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch spor, from Old Dutch *spor, from Proto-Germanic *spur?, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-.

Noun

spoor n (plural sporen, diminutive spoortje n)

1. track
2. railway track
3. trace
4. spoor
5. lead, trail, clue

Derived terms

• smalspoor
• spoorbaan
• spoorloos
• spoorweg
• treinspoor
• voetspoor
• opsporen

Descendants

• Afrikaans: spoor
  • ? English: spoor
• ? Javanese: sepur
  • Indonesian: sepur (“train”)
• ? Indonesian: sepur (“railway track”)

Etymology 2

From Middle Dutch spore, from Old Dutch *sporo from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH-.

Noun

spoor f (plural sporen, diminutive spoortje n)

1. spur
2. spore

Derived terms

• sporen

Middle English

Noun

spoor

1. Alternative form of spore