From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
A long, narrow cut of pork, from the lower ribs and breastbone, not in any way "extra", as the name suggests, but an English alteration of the Low German ribbesper, meaning "pork ribs roasted on a spit or spear." The same idea is still reflected in the modern German word for spareribs, Rippenspeer, which literally means "spear ribs." The English so embraced the Old German that they distorted the word to ribspare and use it to refer to spareribs to this day. See also pork.
