Tuesday, August 16, 2011

spokes

Well, if you thought about it, you might have seen this post coming. After my last post on what 'bespoke' means, it had to gradually occur to me that with all the sprechen and sprachen and speaking going on, there was a big question about another aspect of the word, which, dare I venture, doesn't probably have a lot to do with speech. I'm talkin' spokes, people. No, not spokespeople. Those things that you find inside wheels that I suppose keep the rim from getting wrecked. My confession of ignorance isn't really about function--though I suspect there is a thing or two to learn there too, but about etymology.

What's the root?

***

Okay, okay. You guessed it already, didn't you? My problem was that I got stuck on the vowel. It's not related to speak, it's related to spike. Or probably is. At least in one theory, it's related to a lot of sharp, pointy things, like spines and pinnacles and Lithuanian thorns (speigliai) and tongues of buckles (spitna), and Latin ears of corn (spica), and all relating back to one of those ProtoIndoEuropean bases, *spei-, meaning 'sharp point'. Apparently the OED is not so sure that it actually relates to all the Germanic family words, but in any case, in Old English it was spaca and is related to the word spicing, which meant 'large nail'.

This all makes sense, but I'm still a bit confused. Spokes originally referred not to those those little sticks you see connecting the hub and the rim, but to lengths of a log that had been split horizontally into sections. What we now think of as spokes were actually carved out of these longer pieces of wood. The meaning of the word drifted, in that fascinating way that words do drift, from the raw material to the finished product. I'm not really sure why those original bigger pieces of wood were called spokes, though. It wouldn't seem that they would have necessarily been all that sharp, but I doubt I can dig down to the heart on that.




A couple of things came to light as I researched this word. One is that even spokes have geeks. One of the things that spoke geeks (mainly cyclists) talk about is the question of 'hang or stand?'--that is, does a loaded bike stand on its bottom spokes, or hang from its top ones? You can look at it one way, or you can look at it another. It's all a bit beyond me, I'm afraid.

The desired spoke length for wheels with crossed spokes.


And it was only as I was writing this that I realized that there was a phrase about spokes that's a bit odd. The expression 'to put a spoke in one's wheel', meaning to put a stop or obstacle into someone's plans, doesn't make a whole lot of sense if you try to visualize it. An extra spoke would only strengthen the thing, wouldn't it?

Well, in fact, we're talking about a whole different set of wheels. Before spokes, there were still wheels. They were circles of wood with a small hole or two in which a long pin (or spoke) could be inserted and then act as a kind of brake.

Getting around in the Bronze Age  

13 comments:

  1. Is someone who speaks for spokes a spokesgeek? I am ashamed to admit that, while I had admired crossed spokes, I had never before wondered why they were the way they were.

    Spokes play a grisly role in a number of South African crime novels.
    ======================
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  2. The answer to your question is, Yes.

    Thanks to the above calculation, you can now build your crossed spokes yourself. Although you may want to go to Wikipedia to figure out what all the letters stand for.

    Yikes. I hadn't thought of spokes as crime weapons. Spikes, yes. Spokes, no.

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  3. Oh, yeah, some of those Cape Town gangs use spokes for more than just supporting bicycle wheels, at least in crime fiction.

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  4. Are we talking about writers like Roger Smith and Deon Meyer?

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  5. If memory serves me well, Roger Smith, and also James McClure, which would mean it's not a new thing -- no new shocking torture-porn device, that is.

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  6. Well, spokes are no new thing, so I'm not surprised to hear that their use in crime is no new thing either.

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  8. The creative uses the gangsters found for their spokes sounds more characteristic of newer crime writing. Their use in the past, though, would be a salutary reminder that we really are no more depraved than we used to be.

    Hmm, if to stab someone with a spoke is to spoke him, some wiseacre South African could ask "What's the past tense of spoke?" I am thankful that none has, as far as I know.

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  9. Wonderful! Love the word drift. Love the tongues of buckles.

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  10. Kathleen, I wonder if it would be so very hard to get 'spitna' incorporated into the English language.

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  11. There is backup quarterback in the National Football League named Jon Kitna. I'm sure he would happy to do public-service spots to bolster the acceptance of that new word.

    My v-word is hoying -- the name of another former backup quarterback in the National Football League.

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  12. You might enjoy the following, cited in Chris Ewan’s Good Thief’s Guide to Vegas:

    The crowning glory was his bathroom, where a large, bespoke tub was installed so that Houdini could fill it with ice-cold water and discipline himself to hold his breath for long periods of time, by way of preparation for the rigors of his Chinese Water Torture Cell.
    ======================
    Detectives Beyond Borders
    "Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
    http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/

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  13. Kitna's Spitna does have a certain ring to it, although I don't think they use many buckles in professional football, do they?

    And yes, good find on bespoke in Ewan's book. I get the feeling that bespoke is fairly commonly usage in England.

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