Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A type of wheat (Triticum spelta syn. T. aestivum subsp. spelta) having a tough hull. It was widely cultivated in southwest Asia, the Near East, and Europe during the Bronze Age and is now grown chiefly in Europe.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A preterit and past participle of spell.
  • To split; break.
  • noun An unrecognized abbreviation of spelter, a commercial name of zinc.
  • noun A splinter, splint, or strip; a spell or spill.
  • noun A kind of wheat commonly known as Triticum Spelta, but believed to be a race of the common wheat, Triticum sativum (T. vulgare).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Bot.) A species of grain (Triticum Spelta) much cultivated for food in Germany and Switzerland; -- called also German wheat.
  • verb obsolete To split; to break; to spalt.
  • imp. & p. p. of spell. Spelled.
  • noun (Metal.), colloq. Spelter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb chiefly UK Simple past tense and past participle of spell.
  • noun A grain, considered either a subspecies of wheat, Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta, or a separate species Triticum spelta.
  • noun dialect, Northern England, Scotland A thin piece of wood or metal; a splinter.
  • verb obsolete To split; to break; to spalt.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe for livestock feed

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin spelta, probably of Germanic origin; akin to Middle Dutch spelte, wheat.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See spell

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old English spelt ("spelt, corn"), from Old Saxon spelta ("spelt"); or from Late Latin spelta ("spelt"), from Frankish *spelta (“spelt”); all from Proto-Germanic *spiltō, *spiltaz (“spelt”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pelbh-, *(s)pelbh-t- (“spelt, spelt meal”). Cognate with Old High German spelza ("spelt"), Modern German Spelz ("wheat-like cereal"), Dutch spelt ("spelt").

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle High German spalden, or Old Norse spald.

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Examples

  • His agent, Don Meehan, says Yemelin prefers his name spelt with a 'y'.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2011

  • If any keen-eyed critic of the ocean, however, should happen to detect a rope rove through the wrong leading-block, or a term spelt in such a manner as to destroy its true sound, he is admonished of the duty of ascribing the circumstances, in charity, to any thing but ignorance on the part of a brother.

    The Red Rover James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • But here is a quote from the above-mentioned report, "Farro in Italy": "It is very difficult to make the distinction between the three different farros einkorn, emmer and spelt as particularly the term spelt and farro are often used as synonyms.

    Archive 2009-03-01 Bryanna Clark Grogan 2009

  • But here is a quote from the above-mentioned report, "Farro in Italy": "It is very difficult to make the distinction between the three different farros einkorn, emmer and spelt as particularly the term spelt and farro are often used as synonyms.

    FARRO MINESTRONE WITH WINTER SQUASH AND GREENS Bryanna Clark Grogan 2009

  • I brought the spelt pasta home with me from Austria – spelt is quite popular there right now, it seems.

    Bento #195 – spelt pasta « Were rabbits 2009

  • I used wholegrain spelt flour, xylobrit (xylitol) and soya butter, added walnuts and dried cranberries, and its delish!

    Banana bread-cake 2009

  • Add the cornmeal, wheat bran, whole grain spelt flour, buttermilk, butter, eggs, salt, oil and honey (I recommend pouring the oil into the measuring cup first, dumping it, and then measuring the honey — it will slide right out for you) to the soaking grains.

    Laura’s Not 7 Grain Multi Grain Honey Bread Laura 2008

  • Add the cornmeal, wheat bran, whole grain spelt flour, buttermilk, butter, eggs, salt, oil and honey (I recommend pouring the oil into the measuring cup first, dumping it, and then measuring the honey — it will slide right out for you) to the soaking grains.

    Archive 2008-05-01 Laura 2008

  • The spelt is courtesy of June, who made such a startlingly high, even textured sandwich loaf from all spelt (I'm going to be trying one of those soon, too), and Lynn D. *, who put some in her 18 hour loaf, and liked the results.

    Toast: Lindy 2007

  • The spelt is courtesy of June, who made such a startlingly high, even textured sandwich loaf from all spelt (I'm going to be trying one of those soon, too), and Lynn D. *, who put some in her 18 hour loaf, and liked the results.

    Messing With the Bread Lindy 2007

Comments

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  • 1) past tense of spell

    2) dreadful-tasting wheat product

    January 18, 2008

  • Not to be confused with smelt!

    January 18, 2008

  • Have you ever smelt spelt?

    January 18, 2008

  • I haven't. Is it dreadful?

    January 18, 2008

  • I have, however, spelt smelt.

    January 18, 2008

  • I've smelt spelt and smelt smelt, and I've always felt that spelt smelt better than smelt smelt. On the other hand, I've spelt spelt and I've spelt smelt, and I've always felt that smelt spelt better than spelt spelt.

    But that's just me.

    January 18, 2008

  • I have smelt smelt, and I've spelt spelt, but I've never smelt spelt.

    January 18, 2008

  • Note for posterity: rt beat me by a nanosecond there. It's not like I came along an hour later and ripped him off shamelessly.

    January 18, 2008

  • Trying... to... parse...

    January 18, 2008

  • I'm going to pelt you both. With felt.

    January 18, 2008

  • Apparently, John felt the felt would leave a welt.

    January 18, 2008

  • It would have, had he used his belt instead of the felt.

    January 18, 2008

  • What a blow that would have dealt!

    January 18, 2008

  • I'll wager the felt-dealt welt felt nothing like the belt-dealt welt felt.

    *stops to proofread before posting*

    January 18, 2008

  • That all depends, of course, on where each welt dwelt. Were they svelte, or below the belt?

    January 18, 2008

  • I believe that the welts from the pelted belt (no longer felt) dwelt below the belt, where the pelt of wild bear was not protecting him, so the welt was more felt.

    January 18, 2008

  • On the Veldt.

    January 18, 2008

  • Nonsense. Even if John were to pelt us with felt rather than a belt (to avoid leaving a welt), and if that happened on the veldt, the smelt would still have smelt as it always smelt and the spelt would have smelt as it always smelt. Although on the veldt, everything would melt, so the smelt might have smelt more than I felt it originally smelt.

    But what if you were a Celt? *brain spinning*

    January 18, 2008

  • Second note for posterity: yarb's right. It was a mere nanosecond.

    January 18, 2008

  • Spelt is an ancient and lovely tasting grain in the wheat family. It makes a more crisp, dense bread, has less gluten than typical wheat. It is available as white or bleached flour or as a whole grain brown flour. Spelt pasta is also available.

    March 12, 2008

  • Spelt pasta must be what they use to make alphabet soup.

    March 13, 2008

  • That made me laugh out loud, sionnach. Also, when I'd quieted down I thought, like Alphabetti Spaghetti, too.

    March 13, 2008

  • I'd just like to draw attention to one of the quotes,

    “We have also switched the regular flour, using another flower called spelt, which is very good for you.”

    I'm pretty sure spelt is a FLOUR . :P

    April 7, 2012

  • The Century Dictionary does have this under the definitions for flower: "n. The finest part of grain pulverized. See flour."

    April 8, 2012

  • For more comments about how flour is spelt, see second.

    April 9, 2012

  • Spelt is a grain, barley is for malting, oats is/are for horses (Dr Johnson) and pure sublimated sulphur comes in the form of flowers.

    April 9, 2012

  • This page is amazing. How did I not know about this before?

    *laughing out loud*

    April 10, 2012