Noun: spadger
| Singular | spadger |
| Plural | spadgers |
Sample Sentences
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Genuine cockney ‘spadgers’ have appeared at Bulli. The little hoppers are spreading rapidly all over the colony. [1884 September 24, The Newcastle Morning Herald, Newcastle, NSW, page 3, column 7:]
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The broadcasting blokes are twittering away like spadgers over there. [1961, Margery Allingham, Three cases for Mr. Campion, page 82:]
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'If you think spadgers is easy,' the father said, 'go get yourself a jenny wren. Jenny wrens is 'alf the size of spadgers and they never sit still for one second. Get yourself a jenny wren before you start shootin' yer mouth off about 'ow clever you is.' [1977, Roald Dahl, The Swan:]
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He laughs and says, “My, you sure talk brash, for such a little spadger.” [1970, Donald Harington, Lightning Bug:]
Nouns inflected like spadger
soldier's woundwort,
Nicosian,
whopper,
greypate,
tactile sign language,
chronotrope,
Rosie Lee,
dissentient,
photoinactivator,
sulphonediimine,
coastal waterfall,
residuary devise,
bituminization,
nitrosonaphthol,
smṛiti,
geosphere,
backscreen,
mensuralist,
flocculate,
flocculant, etc. (List truncated at 20 nouns)
Etymology
Originally British dialect (1850s), from spadge (fronted variant of northern dialect spag) + -er. The northern dialect term spag is a derhoticised form of Scots spurg (“sparrow”), from spur (from Old Norse spǫrr (“sparrow”), suffixless cognate of Old English spearwa) + diminutive suffix -ock, with loss of vowel and voicing of -k to -g after r. See: Old Norse Nouns '
spǫrr', Old English Nouns '
spearwa'.