Can I Spell You

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mary. I’m calling from Royal Oak, Michigan.

Okay, welcome to the show, Mary.

Hi, Mary. Welcome.

Thank you. Glad to be on.

What can we help you with?

Well, I had an incident happen while I was shoveling snow, just right around Christmas with my sister and with my partner, who are from different parts of the country.

And we had two shovels and four people, and when the time came where I didn’t have a shovel and I wanted one, I went up to my partner and I said, can I spell you?

And she said, what?

And then I went up to my sister just because I was curious, and I said, do you want me to spell you?

And she just handed me the shovel.

And so I was curious to the meaning of to spell, the meaning to relieve someone or to take a turn, whether that was a regional thing in the U.S. or what the issue was on that.

So spell, I can tell you it’s not related to the spell where you put letters together, like Y-O-U.

And it’s not related to the kind of spell that you cast onto somebody.

No witches involved.

Yeah, no witches involved.

No wizards.

And it’s spelled the same way as those other spells, S-B-E-L-L.

But it comes from an entirely different root, an old English word that sounds like spalian.

And it means, as you said, to take the place of someone for a period of time.

And that’s also why you have the term spell like set a spell.

Do you use that, Mary?

I know what it means, but I don’t actively use it.

Oh, yeah.

I guess I’ve watched too many episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies at the end of that.

You know, they say, set a spell, take your shoes off.

But, yeah, it’s a different spell from those other spells.

But, yeah, it’s a perfectly legitimate term.

So this goes back to Old English to mean to fill in for somebody or substitute, take a work shift, right?

Yeah, exactly.

Interesting.

And it’s funny that it should exist in its own little island in language.

Do we have any other related words?

I can’t think of any.

There’s some really old ones.

But not modern stuff that might come up once in a while.

Interesting.

It’s not regional.

It’s fairly widespread.

Not that common, maybe.

Yeah.

So I’m surprised you didn’t know.

Apparently not common enough.

Yeah.

Well, when I did look it up in the dictionary, they said it was an archaic usage.

Oh, really?

Really?

Which dictionary was this?

I think Merriam-Webster.

No kidding.

I’ll have to get on them.

I know a bunch of the editors there.

I’m going to chastise them, make them fix it.

Yeah.

Because it’s not archaic.

I use it, you use it.

Yeah, let me spell you for a while.

Maybe I’m older than I think I am.

Yeah, well, the good thing is that you were offering, right?

Mm-right.

We know what you meant, Mary.

Well, that’s good to know, and I will continue to use it.

I had it up on my Facebook page for a while, and I got a wide variety of yeses and nos.

Oh, really?

Oh, interesting.

It must just be whether your family used it or whether the people around you used it.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, good that you were asking.

You could also put that on our Facebook page.

Yeah, I’d be interested to see what our audience would think about that.

Maybe we’ll do that ourselves.

Yeah, drop by.

Thanks, Mary.

Thanks a lot.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Enjoy your show.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, so not regional necessarily?

No, not at all.

Just not that common.

Words don’t all have to be at the top of the winner’s list.

Are people not offering to help each other out?

I don’t get it.

They do, but can I do that for you?

Can I take a turn?

There’s other ways.

Like spell.

Can I spell you?

Do it for a spell.

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