spruce
/spɹuːs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.39 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
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.
Countable; Uncountable
adj
Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person).
verb
To make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance).
verb
To tease.
Example Sentences
- "That spruce table is beautiful!"
- "Hovv often vvould the Svvaines prepare their Morrice & their May / To haue a ſight of her, vvhen all enamoured vvent their vvay? / The ſprevvſeſt Citie-Lads for her vvould faine the Countrie-aire, / And that their prouder Girles had but adultrate beauties ſvvaire, […]"
- "[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."
- "A spruce young lieutenant came over, saluted and clambered into the back of our jeep, and we were off."
- "The two clean rooms, where chips are made, are sprucer than a hospital theatre."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: Spruce, -
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /spɹuːs/