spawn \ˈspȯn, ˈspän\ noun and verbnoun: the mass of eggs deposited by fish or amphibians or mollusks verb: lay spawn verb: call forth_________The word spawn has appeared in 85 New York Times articles in the past year, including on Dec. 30 in “Pan Pan, Father to a Generation of Pandas, Dies in China,” by Erin McCann:Pan Pan, a giant panda whose virility helped spawn an entire generation of the notoriously difficult-to-breed animals, died this week at a conservation center in China’s Sichuan Province. ... Pan Pan was born in the wild in 1985 and taken into captivity shortly after, according to the BBC. As part of a breeding program, he was especially successful at impregnating female pandas, a notoriously difficult feat for a species that is fertile for only two or three days each year. _________Think you know “spawn”? Quiz yourself:

Source: New York Times January 17, 2017 07:00 UTC