spoor

From Afrikaans spoor, from Dutch spoor, akin to Old English and Old English spor (whence Danish spor), and German Spur, all from Proto-Germanic *spurą. Compare spurn.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /spʊə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /spʊɹ/, /spɔɹ/
• Homophones: spore (in some accents)

spoor (usually uncountable, plural spoors)

1. The track, trail, droppings or scent of an animal
   • 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.

   • 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.

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

• proso, roops, sopor, sporo-

• IPA^(key): /spoːr/

• Audio

  (file)

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

spoor n (plural sporen, diminutive spoortje n)

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

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

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

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

spoor f (plural sporen, diminutive spoortje n)

1. spur
2. spore

• sporen

spoor

1. Alternative form of spore