Etymograph

English

spring

Spring comes from Old English springan ‘to spring, leap, bounce, sprout forth, emerge,…’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sperǵʰ- ‘to hurry’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sperǵʰ-‘to hurry’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*spre(n)ǵʰ-‘to move’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*springaną‘to burst forth’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*springan‘to spring’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150springan‘to spring’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500springen
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1250spring

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sperǵʰ-‘to hurry’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*spre(n)ǵʰ-‘to move’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*springaną‘to burst forth’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*springan‘to spring’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150springan‘to spring’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500springen
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1250spring

Earliest quotation: c. 1250, Life of St Margaret, Trin. Col. MS B.14.39 (323): “...into helle spring...”

Linked words

through Proto-Germanic *springaną ‘to burst forth’

joker, 4 more

Another origin of spring

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sprungiz‘a jump’reconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*sprungireconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*springaz‘a wellspring, fount’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*springreconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150spring‘wellspring, ulcer’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spryng‘a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock’
  7. Englishtodayspring

Further senses derived from the verb and from clippings of day-spring, springtime, spring tide, etc. Its sense as the season, first attested in a work predating 1325, gradually replaced Middle English lenten, lente, from Old English lencten (‘spring, Lent’) as that word became more specifically liturgical.

Today it means

verb To move or burst forth.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *sperǵʰ- / spring

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