General
spake
What does spake mean?
A rail wagon used in Welsh collieries to carry miners down to the coalface and back out at the end of a shift. Pure South Wales pit vocab — if you worked the deep mines, the spake was your morning commute.
"Granddad rode the spake into Tower Colliery every morning for forty years."
Origin
Mining sense possibly a variant of 'spoke' (as in wheel/rail), specific to Welsh coalfields. Archaic verb sense is the original strong-past of 'speak'.
Frequently asked questions
What does "spake" mean in Welsh mining?
It's a Welsh mining wagon that ferried colliers in and out of the pit.
How do you use "spake" in a sentence?
"The men rode the spake down to the coalface at the start of the shift."
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