different between scrat vs sprat

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English scratten. Origin uncertain; apparently related to Swedish kratta (“to rake”).

Verb

scrat (third-person singular simple present scrats, present participle scratting, simple past and past participle scratted)

1. (obsolete) To scratch, to use one's nails or claws.
   • , New York Review of Books, 2001, p.286:

     Euclio […] as he went from home, seeing a crow scrat upon the muck-hill, returned in all haste, taking it for malum omen, an ill sign […].

2. (obsolete, Britain) To rake; to search.
   • 1978, A.S. Byatt, The Virgin in The Garden, Vintage International 1992, p.89

     He himself had scratted in the thin dust of evangelical tracts.

Etymology 2

Compare Old English scritta (“a hermaphrodite”), Aguano scrut (“a scrub, a low, mean person”).

Noun

scrat (plural scrats)

1. (obsolete) A hermaphrodite.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Skinner to this entry?)

Etymology 3

Compare German Schratt and Old Norse skratti.

Noun

scrat (plural scrats)

1. (obsolete) A devil.

Related terms

• Old Scratch

Anagrams

• C-rats, CARTs, Carts, SCART, carts, crats, scart

English

Etymology

From Middle English sprotte, from Old English sprot. Older source is unknown. Cognate with German Sprotte, Dutch sprot. Compare sprout.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?æt/
• Rhymes: -æt

Noun

sprat (plural sprat or sprats)

1. Any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the genus Sprattus, in the family Clupeidae.
2. (Britain, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.

Derived terms

• a sprat to catch a mackerel
• spratlike

Translations

See also

• pilchard
• sardine

References

• (sixpence): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Anagrams

• S trap, TRAPS, parts, prats, rapts, strap, tarps, traps

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sprât/

Noun

spr?t m (Cyrillic spelling ??????)

1. floor, story/storey (level)

Declension

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:?????.