spruce

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments  · 
Dwarf Alberta spruce is a cultivated variety of our white spruce.

View all »
Definitions (51)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun Any of various coniferous evergreen trees of the genus Picea, having needlelike foliage, drooping cones, and soft wood often used for paper pulp.
  2. noun Any of various similar or related trees.
  3. noun The wood of any of these trees.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (35)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (4)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 105 times.

On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

fir ·  cedar ·  maple ·  evergreen ·  pine ·  larch ·  juniper ·  hickory ·  sycamore ·  redwood ·  yew ·  balsam

Used in the same contextWord Family

spruce:   spruced
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Short for obsolete Spruce fir, Prussian fir, from Middle English Spruce, Prussia, alteration of Pruce from Anglo-Norman Pruz, from Medieval Latin Prussia.
  2. Perhaps from obsolete spruce leather, Prussian leather, from Middle English Spruce, Prussia; see spruce1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. An abbreviation of Spruce leather, also Pruce leather, where Spruce or Pruce is an attributive use of the older English name of Prussia; from Middle English Spruce, a variant, with unorig. initial S-, of Pruce, Prus, Pruys (also in comp. Pruslond, Pruyslond), from OF, Pruce (French Prusse), from Middle Latin Prussia (German Preussen = Dutch Pruissen = Swedish Danish Preussen), Prussia: see Prussian. The name Spruce, Prussia, was not only used in the phrase Spruce leather, or Pruce leather, but also in connection with fashionable apparel (“apparreyled after the manner of Prussia or Spruce,” Hall, Henry VIII., an. 1), and also allusively, somewhat like Cockayne, as a land of luxury (“He shall liue in the land of Spruce, milke and hony flowing into his mouth sleeping”—Chapman, “Masque of Middle Temple and Lincoln's Inn”). Hence prob. the adjective spruce. Cf. spruce.
  2. Scots also sprush; prob. an extended use of spruce, in allusion to fashionable apparel: see spruce. This adjective cannot be derived, as some attempt to derive it, from Middle English prous, preus, from Old French proz, French preux, brave, etc. (see prow), or from English dial. sprugor sprack.
  3. from spruce, a.
  4. An abbreviation of spruce-fir.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »

/sprus/
by American Heritage

Charts

frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a week.

Recently looked up

Conjuring · scalar · treacle · echo · hoary

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich