sprühen (German)

Where does "sprühen" come from?

The German verb 'sprühen', meaning 'to spray' or to radiate with a certain feeling, descends from Middle High German 'spræjen'[1]. This Middle High German form traces ultimately back to a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root '*sper-', which carried the meaning 'to sprinkle, scatter, strew'[1]. Through this deep historical lineage, the word shares distant connections to other terms across the Germanic and broader linguistic families, such as English 'sprout', Latin 'spargō', and Dutch 'sproeien'[1].

Open questions

• The ultimate connection to the Proto-Indo-European root rests on a reconstructed form and a somewhat indirect derivative chain. [1]

Full etymology tree

• sprühen (German), 'to spray'
  • inherited spræjen (Middle High German)
    • derived *sper- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to scatter, strew'

Ancestors

• *sper- (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• sproeien (Dutch)
• sprout (English)
• spargo (Latin)

Sources

1. sprühen (German) - Wiktionary

Updated August 2026

More words starting with S

Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris