Also 5–7 spens(e, 5 spenyse. [Aphetically f. OF. despense (mod.F. dépense), = Sp. and Pg. despensa, It. dispensa, med.L. despensa, dispensa (rarely spensa), in the same sense: cf. DISPENSE sb.1 So Swiss dial. spense.
The prefix de- is similarly dropped in other words; in this case there may have been association with SPENSE sb.]
1. A room or separate place in which victuals and liquor are kept; a buttery or pantry; a cupboard. Now dial. or arch.
α. c. 1386. Chaucer, Sompn. T., 223. Fat as a whale, and walking as a swan; Al vinolent as Botel in the spence.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 23026. I hadd no maner lyberte;… in the seller, nor in the spence, ete nor drynke on no syde.
c. 1460. Play of Sacram., 529. He syttyth with sum tapstere in ye spence.
1540. Palsgr., Acolastus, Q iij. If we … bring out of (the buttery) or spence all the meate that is left.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, I. v. 22. [A] vaulted roome, which shall also be for the huswifes vse and serue for a spence, to keepe her prouision of victuals in.
1684. Yorks. Dial., 183 (E. D. S.). Our Sew hes been ’ith Spence, thrawn down Whigg-Stand.
1720. Postmaster, 25 Nov., 103. House … contains Four Chambers,… a Kitchen, with two Spences.
1790. Grose, Prov. Gloss. (ed. 2), Spence, a small place for setting milk or drink in, made with wainscot, or a lattice.
1814. Scott, Wav., xvii. In one large aperture, which the robber facetiously called his spence (or pantry).
1865. R. Hunt, Pop. Rom. W. Eng. (1871), Ser. i. 110. Nancy must have something to drink before she started for Penzance, and she went to the spence for the bottles.
fig. 1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XIX. xii. 141. These cruell enterludes, which out of a spence or budget of craftie devices he brought forth.
β. 14[?]. Lat.-Eng. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 578. Dispensa, a spense.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 1441. He bare þe bordeclath to þe spens.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 151 b. I haue ij spensis: one for euery day: a nother for store of all vitayle, tyll newe come.
1609. Skene, Reg. Maj., 6. Hir keyes … or hir spens, hir ark of hir claithing and jewells, or of hir cist or coffer.
2. Sc. An inner apartment of a house; a parlour.
α. 1783. Burns, Poor Mailie’s Elegy, iv. Our Bardie, lanely, keeps the spence. Ibid. (1786), Vision, I. ii. Ben I’ the Spence, right pensivelie, I gaed to rest.
1820. Scott, Monast., iv. They rushed into the spence, (a sort of interior apartment in which the family ate their victuals in the summer season) but there was no one there.
1843. Bethune, Scott. Peasant’s Fire-side, 154. Others assisted in conveying the invalid to the spence of the inn, which had been readily offered for the accommodation of the family.
3. attrib., as spence-basket, -door.
1825. Jamieson, Suppl., Spense-Door, the door between the kitchen and the spense.
1844. W. H. Maxwell, Wand. Highl. & Isl., I. ix. 180. A peg behind the spence door.
1881. Cussans, Hist. Hertfordsh., III. II. 321. Spence-Basket, a basket used by waggoners to hold provisions for their journey.
