Other forms: spates
A spate is a sudden rush of many things at once. A spate of burglaries.
The literal sense is a river in flood, which is what a river in spate means. A spate of anything in the news usually means more reporting rather than more events.
1nounspateA sudden rush of many things at once.
“There was a spate of thefts in one street over a fortnight.”
spate is a rush.
Middle English spate comes from Scots, where it meant a sudden flood or a downpour.
Proto-Indo-European
*sp(y)ēw-
Middle English
spate
English, today
spate
Built from
The noun is derived from Middle English spate, spait (“a flood”), influenced by Scots spate (“torrent of water, flood; heavy downpour of rain; (figurative) bout of drinking; large crowd of people; flood of events, words, etc.”). The further etymology of the Middle English and Scots words is uncertain; they are possibly related to English spatter and Dutch spatten (“to spatter, splash”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European sp(y)ēw-, spyū- (whence English spit (“to evacuate (saliva or another substance) from the mouth, etc.”)), which is imitative of spitting. The verb is derived from the noun, probably influenced by Scots spate (“to flood, swell; to rain heavily; (figurative) to scold fiercely”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA