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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for May 20, 1999
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spoil [n., v. SPOYL]
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To spoil something is to render it unfit for use, or to seriously
impair its quality or beauty. To spoil can also be to harm someone's
character (especially a child) through excessive praise or
overindulgence. There is also the noun form (usually plural): goods
or property seized from a victim after a conflict.
Originally, Latin spolium was the hide stripped from a killed animal.
The ancient root of this was spel- (split, burst), which also led to
German spalten (to split) and Modern English spill and split.
The meaning drifted over the centuries to "weapons taken from a slain
enemy" and eventually any sort of booty or plunder. Thus we have the
modern expression "the spoils of war."
Meanwhile, the verb form evolved from the original meaning of the
word, in recognition that a dead animal that has been spoiled
(stripped of its skin) is essentially worthless. The most recent
meaning, to harm someone's character through overindulgence, arose in
the 17th century.
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