spruce · Contextualize

Etymology

From Middle English Spruce, an alteration of Pruce (“Prussia”), from Medieval Latin, from a Baltic language, probably Old Prussian; for more, see Prussia. Spruce, spruse (1412), and Sprws (1378) were terms for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, wood, leather). The tree with this name was also believed to have been native to Prussia. The adjective and verb senses ("trim, neat" and "to make trim, neat") are attested from 1594, and originate with spruce leather (1466), which was used to make a popular style of jerkins in the 1400s that was considered smart-looking.

inherited from Spruce

Definitions

Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees or shrubs from the genus Picea, found in…
Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees or shrubs from the genus Picea, found in northern temperate and boreal regions; originally and more fully spruce fir.
The wood of a spruce.
3
Made of the wood of the spruce.
- That spruce table is beautiful!
›+ 8 more definitionsshow fewer
1. Prussian leather
  Prussian leather; pruce.
2. 5
  Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance
  Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person).
  - [A] baker's boy in a white apron and blue jumpers went by carrying a basket of bread on his head; and from the nearby tobacconist's, a spruce young lieutenant dressed in a black uniform emerged lighting a cigarette.
  - He had great neatness of person, and he continued to wear his spruce black coat and his bowler hat, always a little too small for him, in a dapper, jaunty manner.
3. To arrange neatly
  To arrange neatly; tidy up.
4. To make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance).
5. To tease.
6. Prussia.
7. A surname.
8. A number of places in the United States
  A number of places in the United States:

The neighborhood

Derived

black spruce, blue spruce, Brewer's spruce, Colorado blue spruce, Colorado spruce, Colorado green spruce, dark-bark spruce, Engelmann spruce, Engelmann's spruce, European spruce, Ezo spruce, green spruce, Jezo spruce, Koyama's spruce, Norway spruce, Patton's spruce, red spruce, Serbian spruce, Siberian spruce, silverspruce, silver spruce, Picea pungens), Siskiyou spruce, Sitka spruce, skunk spruce, spruce aphid, spruce beer, spruce cone, spruce grouse, spruce hen, spruce gum, spruceless, sprucely, spruceness, spruce pine, sprucery, spruce siskin, spruce tip, sprucify, sprucy · +8 more

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for spruce. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.