German

Noun

Spange f ‎(genitive Spange, plural Spangen)

1. clasp, bracelet, brooch
2. hairpin
3. buckle
4. bar (military decoration)

English

Verb

spange ‎(third-person singular simple present spanges, present participle spanging, simple past and past participle spanged)

1. (US) to beg, particularly using the phrase “spare change?”

Usage notes

Often used to refer to one’s own activities,^[1][2] without pejorative sense. Compare spanger, often used pejoratively to refer to others.

Quotations

• 1996, Tim “Salvage”, quoted in Ian Fisher, “Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold.”^[1]

  I don’t spange much because I really don’t like doing it. I eat out of trash cans a lot.

• 2009, Kelly Myers, 33, quoted in Joe Deegan, “Nowhere To Go”, San Diego Reader^[2]

  Then my father would send all us kids out to ‘spange’ [beg for spare change]. You could sometimes make $50 a day by spanging. Other days you might make a dollar.

Derived terms

• spanger
• spanging

References

1. 1 2 “Erin’s looking for Leg-Rub Steve. Fly’s looking for CD’s to steal. Star’s looking for Jaya. And it’s starting to get cold,” Ian Fisher, December 8, 1996, The New York Times
2. 1 2 Nowhere To Go, by Joe Deegan, San Diego Reader, Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009

• Word Watch, The Atlantic, April 1997, by Anne H. Soukhanov, executive editor of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition.