Etymograph

English

spread

Spread comes from Old English sprǣdan ‘to spread’, from Proto-Germanic *spraidijaną, causative of *sprīþaną ‘to break up, scatter’, of uncertain origin.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sprīþaną1‘to break up, become scattered’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spraidijaną1‘to spread’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spraidijan2reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sprǣdan1‘to spread, expand’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spreden1‘to spread’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1627spread1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English spread
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English sprædan
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1627, (please specify the page, or |century=I to X): “No flower hath that kind of spread that the…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*sprīþanąWiktionary, English spread‘to break up, become scattered’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*spraidijanąWiktionary, English spread‘to spread’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*spraidijanWiktionary, Old English sprædanreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150sprǣdanWiktionary, English spread‘to spread, expand’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500spredenWiktionary, English spread‘to spread’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1627spreadWiktionary, English spread. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1627, (please specify the page, or |century=I to X): “No flower hath that kind of spread that the…”

Word family

English words that share an ancestor with spread, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.

through Proto-Indo-European *(s)per- ‘to strew, sow, sprinkle’

  • fry ← frie ← frjó ← *fraiwą
  • spray ← sprāien ← *sprēwijaną
  • spurt ← sprit ← sprytten ← spryttan ← *spruttjan

3 more relatives in the full family tree

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Today it means

verb To stretch out, open out (a material etc.) so that it more fully covers a given area of space.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “spread”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English sprædan. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *sprīþaną / spread