Spurred

Posted by R. Berg on September 01, 2005

In Reply to: Spurred/spurned to action posted by ESC on August 31, 2005

: : Would anyone confirm if it is "spurned to action" or "spurred to action"? In looking into definitions, one may logically conclude that "spurred" is more appropriate... however, I am guilty of using the former (spurned) and find that the transitive verb definition may also be appropriate. If anyone knows the origin or would be able to clarify this, I would greatly appreciate it.

: I vote for "spurred to action." Unless one is a woman scorned, then it might be "spurned to action."

Definitely "spurred." To spur is to incite, prompt, stimulate (American Heritage Dictionary), from the use of spurs to urge a horse to run faster.