Etymology: Origin unknown. The recorded forms may perhaps all show transmission errors for spreut , variant of sprout n.¹The evidence all comes from mixed language documents, and may reflect an Anglo-Norman rather than a Middle English form, although in either case it may well not reflect a form that was ever in genuine use.

Etymology: < sprent v. Compare sprint n.¹, sprint n.², sprunt n.¹ Much earlier currency of sense 2c is probably implied by sprint n.¹ 1.Compare Old Icelandic sprettr a spurt, spring, bound, run, Norwegian sprett a splash, spatter, a jerk, a jump.

Etymology: < sprent, past participle of sprenge v.

Etymology: < early Scandinavian (compare Old Icelandic spretta (earlier *sprenta ; weak verb) to make spring up, to unloose, to rip up, Faroese spretta to cut or rip up, to splash, spatter, Norwegian sprette to cut, rip, slit open, to spray, spurt, squirt, to scatter, spread, Swedish sprätta to make spring up, to rip off or up, to spatter, Danish sprætte to jerk, twitch, to sprinkle), reflecting a weak (originally causative) formation < the same Germanic base as the strong verb Old Icelandic spretta (earlier *sprinta ) to spurt out, to start, spring, to sprout, grow, Faroese spretta to jump or shoot forward, to sprout, grow, Norwegian sprette to bound, leap, jump, to jerk, twitch, to splash, spurt, to shoot forth, sprout, Swedish spritta to jump, bound, sprätta to strut about, Swedish regional sprinta (of a plant) to sprout, bud (in the modern Scandinavian languages the weak verbs have in many cases acquired intransitive meanings and uses that belonged originally to the strong verb), perhaps cognate with (prefixed) Old English gesprintan to utter (words), lit. ‘to cause to burst forth’ (in one uncertain attestation, in past tense, perhaps alternatively showing early borrowing from early Scandinavian), Middle High German sprinzen (of virtues) to shine forth (in a single very uncertain attestation); further etymology uncertain. Compare sprint v. and sprunt v.¹Probably attested earlier in a surname: Thomas Sprentlope (1332). Some instances of the past tense forms sprent , sprente may instead show sprenge v.; association with this word may have influenced the semantic development. With the form sprind compare sprint v.