Meaning

noun a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation

noun a time for working (after which you will be relieved by someone else)

noun a period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition

originFrom Middle English spell, spel, from Old English spell (“news, story”), from Proto-Germanic *spellą (“speech, account, tale”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to tell”) or from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to speak, to sound”) with the s-mobile prefix. Cognate with dialectal German Spill, Icelandic spjall (“discussion, talk”), spjalla (“to discuss, to talk”), guðspjall (“gospel”) and…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0