Etymology

Always derived from ON, cp. OIcel spenna ‘to span, clasp’, which indicates a causative PGmc *spann-jan- (also represented by MLG, MHG spennen ‘to stretch’) formed on the st. v. *spann-an-.   There is no evidence of an English wk. formation on *spann- until (late, N) ME, although OE had the st.VII v. spannan ‘to join, link, fasten, attach’, as had ON and the other WGmc languages (cp. OFris spanna, OS spannan (as the pp. ur-spannane ‘slackened, unbent’), MLG spannen, OHG spannan).

PGmc Ancestor

*spann-jan- 

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

spenna ‘to span, clasp’
(ONP spenna (2) (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far spenna, Icel spenna, Norw spenna, Dan spæde, Sw spänna

OE Cognate

cp. spannan ‘to join, link, fasten, attach’

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

C1ac

Attestation

All citations in MED from N, mostly alliterative texts (with the first from the Gaw group)

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 158, 587; Pe 49, 53

On the sense at Gaw 158 see McGee 348, who suggests the gloss ‘were stretched (over his calf)’. The occurrence at Pe 53 is emended by Goll ( with some followers, incl. AW, but not in his 1891 ed.) to penned (see further Vant 53n).

Bibliography

MED spennen (v.) , OED spen (v.) , HTOED , HTOED , Dance spene, de Vries spenna (2), Mag. spenna (2), Bj-L spenne (1), Seebold spann-a-, Orel *spannjanan