Also 6–8 spaw-. [f. SPA sb.] Water derived from mineral springs (orig. from those at Spa itself).
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. (Arb.), 285. I being at the Spaw waters, there lay a Marshall of Fraunce…, to vse those waters for his health.
1636. Wotton, in Reliq. (1651), 497. The taste and operation of the Spaw-water.
1652. French, Yorksh. Spaw, xv. 114. Four, or six glasses of the Spaw-water may be drunk.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 107, ¶ 13. Drink upon them a Bottle of Spaw-Water.
1778. R. James, Diss. Fevers, etc. (ed. 8), 112. It [i.e., rheumatism] went off … by bathing in the sea, and drinking the Spaw-water at Scarborough.
1843. R. J. Graves, Syst. Clin. Med., xx. 235. Using a course of chalybeate spa waters.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 621. Treatment [of obesity] by spa-waters.
