Galician: encantamento (gl) m, feitizo m.French: charme (fr) m, maléfice (fr) ( for an evil spell ), sort (fr) m, sort (fr), formule magique (fr) f.Czech: kouzlo (cs), zaříkadlo n, zaklínadlo n.Catalan: encís (ca) m, conjur (ca) m, embruixament m, encantament m.Azerbaijani: ovsun, sehr (az), cadu (az), pitik.Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.Cognate with dialectal German Spill, Icelandic spjall ( “ discussion, talk ” ), spjalla ( “ to discuss, to talk ” ), guðspjall ( “ gospel ” ) and Albanian fjalë ( “ word ” ).
From Middle English spell, spel, from Old English spell ( “ news, story ” ), from Proto-Germanic *spellą ( “ speech, account, tale ” ), from Proto-Indo-European *spel- ( “ to tell ” ) or from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- ( “ to speak, to sound ” ) with the s-mobile prefix.
