A quick look at the meaning of "sparen", what it has to do with German culture, and the various ways to translate "to spare".
Vocab:
sparen, sich sparen, sparsam, ersparen, verschonen, übrig
The core idea of this root was:
observing, watching, perceiving
It’s the origin of hören and to hear (which is acoustically perceiving, observing) and also of German schauen, which is about looking at.
The English brother of schauen, to show, shifted from mere seeing toward showing – first, showing what you’re seeing and then showing in the more general sense.
It’s also the origin of German schön, which was originally “something you like to watch” and of the English caution which comes from Latin and was about watching in a sense of being on guard.
Some English relatives:
