spange

verb

spange

verb

/speɪnd͡ʒ/

Etymology Blend of spare + change, from stereotyped phrase “spare change?”, “[can you] spare any change?”

1

US To beg, particularly using the phrase “spare change?”

  • 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.” 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 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

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.