sprat

English

a European sprat (Sprattus sprattus)

Etymology

From Middle English sprotte, from Old English sprot. Older source is unknown. Cognate with German Sprotte, Dutch sprot. Compare sprout.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spɹæt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æt

Noun

sprat (plural sprat or sprats)

1. Any of various small, herring-like, marine fish in the genus Sprattus, in the family Clupeidae.
2. Any of various similar fish of other genera.
3. (by extension) Anything petty or insignificant.
4. (UK, slang, obsolete) A sixpence.
   • 1859, Snowden's magistrates assistant, page 90:

     The price of a case (five shillings piece bad) from the smasher is about one shilling; an alderman (two and sixpence) about sixpence; a peg (shilling) about threepence; a downer or sprat (sixpence) about twopence.

Derived terms

• a sprat to catch a mackerel, throw a sprat to catch a mackerel
• European sprat (Sprattus sprattus)
• slender sprat (Spratelloides gracilis)
• spratlike

Related terms

• spratting

Translations

any of various small marine fish in the genus Sprattus

• Albanian: papalinë f
• Asturian: chapla (ast), llacha (ast), trancha (ast)
• Bulgarian: ца́ца (bg) f (cáca), трицо́на f (tricóna), ко́пърка f (kópǎrka), шпрот m (šprot)
• Czech: šprot m
• Dutch: sprot (nl) m
• Esperanto: sproto
• Estonian: kilu (et), sprott (when oiled)
• Faroese: brislingur m
• Finnish: kilohaili (fi), anjovis (fi), sardelli (fi) (no unifying term)
• French: sprat (fr) m
• Galician: trancho (gl) m
• German: Sprotte (de) f
• Greek: παπαλίνα f (papalína)

  Ancient: μαίνη f (maínē)

• Hungarian: sprotni (hu)
• Indonesian: japuh
• Irish: bioránach m, maghar m, salán m, sprot m, stuifín m
• Italian: spratto (it) m, papalina (it) f
• Latin: maena f
• Maori: kupae
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: brisling m

  Nynorsk: brisling m

• Old English: sprott m
• Persian: کیلکا (fa) (kilkâ)
• Polish: szprot (pl) m, szprotka (pl) f
• Portuguese: espadilha (pt) f
• Romanian: sprot
• Russian: ки́лька (ru) f (kílʹka), шпрот (ru) m (šprot)
• Scots: garvie
• Scottish Gaelic: garbhag f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: слеђица f

  Roman: sleđica f

• Spanish: espadín (es) m
• Swedish: skarpsill (sv) c
• Turkish: çaça (tr)
• Welsh: corbennog m
• Yiddish: שפּראָט m (shprot)

See also

• pilchard
• sardine

References

• (sixpence): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

Verb

sprat (third-person singular simple present sprats, present participle spratting, simple past and past participle spratted)

1. (transitive, historical) To manure (land) with sprats (the fish).
   • 1923, The Agricultural Gazette and Modern Farming, volume 98, page 190:

     […] spratting the land. This treatment is supplemented by about half a ton of artificial manure, largely made up of a mixture of superphosphate and some nitrogenous manure.

Anagrams

• S trap, TRAPS, parts, prats, rapts, strap, tarps, traps

French

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

sprat m (plural sprats)

1. sprat

Further reading

• “sprat”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sprât/

Noun

sprȁt m (Cyrillic spelling спра̏т)

1. floor, story/storey (level)

Declension

Declension of sprat

	singular	plural
nominative	sprat	spratovi
genitive	sprata	spratova
dative	spratu	spratovima
accusative	sprat	spratove
vocative	sprate	spratovi
locative	spratu	spratovima
instrumental	spratom	spratovima

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:спрат.