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-1‘to hurry’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spre(n)ǵʰ-1‘to move’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*springaną1‘to burst forth’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*springan1‘to spring’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150springan1‘to spring’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500springen1
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1250spring1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English spring
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1250, Life of St Margaret, Trin. Col. MS B.14.39 (323): “...into helle spring...”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*sperǵʰ-Wiktionary, English spring‘to hurry’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*spre(n)ǵʰ-Wiktionary, English spring‘to move’reconstructed
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*springanąWiktionary, English spring‘to burst forth’reconstructed
  4. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*springanWiktionary, English spring‘to spring’reconstructed
  5. Old Englishc. 450–1150springanWiktionary, English spring‘to spring’
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500springenWiktionary, English spring
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1250springWiktionary, English spring. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1250, Life of St Margaret, Trin. Col. MS B.14.39 (323): “...into helle spring...”

Word family

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

through Proto-Germanic *springaną ‘to burst forth’

  • joker ← Jucker ← jucken ← springen ← springan

4 more relatives in the full family tree

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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.

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Today it means

verb To move or burst forth.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “spring”. 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-Indo-European *sperǵʰ- / spring