Other forms: spawned, spawning, spawns
To spawn is to lay eggs in water in great numbers. Salmon spawn, spawning grounds, frog spawn.
Fish and amphibians spawn rather than lay, and the noun spawn is the mass of eggs itself — frogspawn is the familiar jelly in a spring pond. Salmon return to the river they hatched in to spawn, which is one of the better-known feats of navigation in nature. Figuratively, to spawn is to give rise to a lot of something: it spawned a dozen imitations. In gaming, spawn is where a character appears.
1verbspawnTo lay eggs in water in great numbers.
“Some fish spawn in shallow water, laying thousands of eggs among the weeds.”
2verbgiveTo give rise to a lot of something.
“The hit film spawned a whole series of cheap copies.”
spawn is an egg-laying, or a giving rise.
Middle English spawnen came through Anglo-Norman from Latin expandere, to spread out. Expand is the same word, so to spawn is to scatter widely — which is exactly what the eggs do.
Latin
expandere — stretch out; spread out
Old French
espandre
Anglo-Norman
espaundre
Middle English
spawnen
English, today
spawn
Recorded since 1413; from Middle English spawnen, from Anglo-Norman espaundre, from Old French espandre, from Latin expandere (“stretch out; spread out”). a doublet of expand. Compare also Middle English spalden, spolden, spawden (“to cut open (a fish)”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA