c. 1400, "to splinter, chip" (transitive; spalding-knife is from mid-14c.), of uncertain origin, perhaps from Middle Dutch spalden, cognate with Middle Low German spalden, Old High German spaltan, German spalten "to split" (see spill (v.)). The later form of the verb is spall (1758), from or by influence of the noun. Related: Spalled; spalling.

type of grain, Old English spelt "spelt, corn," perhaps an early borrowing from Late Latin spelta "spelt" (noted as a foreign word), which is perhaps from Germanic *spilt-, from PIE *speld-, extended form of root *spel- (1) "to split, to break off" (probably in reference to the splitting of its husks in threshing); see spill (v.).

The word had little currency in English, and its history is discontinuous. Widespread in Romanic languages (Italian spelta, Spanish espelta, Old French spelte, Modern French épeautre). The word also is widespread in Germanic (Old High German spelta, German Spelt), and a Germanic language is perhaps the source of the Late Latin word.

1827, from spill (v.) + -age. Shakespeare used spilth "that which has spilled, act of spilling" ("Timon," 1607), which was picked up by Browning, etc.

1940, from verbal phrase, from spill (v.) + over (adv.). From 1953 as an adjective.

1889, from spill + way (n.).

"that which is spilled," c. 1600, from spill (v.) + -th (2). Used, once, by Shakespeare.

c. 1300, "to strip (someone) of clothes, strip a slain enemy," from Old French espillier "to strip, plunder, pillage," from Latin spoliare "to strip, uncover, lay bare; strip of clothing, rob, plunder, pillage," from spolia, plural of spolium "arms taken from an enemy, booty;" originally "hide, skin stripped from a killed animal," from Proto-Italic *spolio- "skin, hide," from PIE *spol-yo-, probably from a root *spel- (1) "to split, to break off" (see spill (v.)) on the notion of "what is split off."

From late 14c. in English as "strip with violence, rob, pillage, plunder, dispossess; impoverish with excessive taxation." Used c. 1400 as the verb to describe Christ's harrowing of Hell. Sense of "destroy, ruin, damage so as to render useless" is from 1560s; that of "to over-indulge" (a child, etc.) is from 1640s (implied in spoiled). Intransitive sense of "become tainted, go bad, lose freshness" is from 1690s. To be spoiling for (a fight, etc.) is from 1865, from notion that one will "spoil" if he doesn't get it.