spruce¹

[sproos] /sprus/

noun

any evergreen, coniferous tree of the genus Picea, of the pine family, having short, angular, needle-shaped leaves attached singly around twigs and bearing hanging cones with persistent scales.

any of various allied trees, as the Douglas fir and the hemlock spruce.

the wood of any such tree.

adjective

made from the wood of a spruce tree or trees.

containing or abounding in spruce trees.

Origin

1350-1400; Middle English, special use of Spruce, sandhi variant of Pruce < Old French Pruce < Medieval Latin Prussia Prussia, whence the timber came

spruce²

[sproos] /sprus/

adjective, sprucer, sprucest.

trim in dress or appearance; neat; smart; dapper.

verb (used with object), spruced, sprucing.

to make spruce or smart (often followed by up):

Spruce up the children before the company comes.

verb (used without object), spruced, sprucing.

to make oneself spruce (usually followed by up).

Origin

1580-90; obsolete spruce jerkin orig., jerkin made of spruce leather, i.e., leather imported from Prussia (see spruce¹), hence fine, smart, etc.

Related forms

sprucely, adverb

spruceness, noun

unspruced, adjective

Examples from the web for spruce

To spruce them up for the holidays, set the topiary tree in an attractive container.
The companies are trying to spruce up the all-in-one desktops by offering additional options such as touchscreens.
spruce forest, swamps, and aspen and willow thickets.
The fir deck is painted spruce gray to complement the periwinkle stucco walls screening the hot tub.
The site is effectively bilingual, thanks to machine translations, and volunteer editors spruce up the translations afterward.
The party has made an effort to spruce up its image, cutting the average age of its candidates by ten years.
All along the main road they try to catch his eye and beg him for money to spruce up their shops.
spruce up the inside of your locker this year with a homemade magnet.
There are plans to spruce up local heritage sites and expand the airport.
Non-native insects such as the bark beetle can infest trees such as spruce.

British Dictionary definitions for spruce

spruce¹

/spruːs/

noun

any coniferous tree of the N temperate genus Picea, cultivated for timber and for ornament: family Pinaceae. They grow in a pyramidal shape and have needle-like leaves and light-coloured wood See also Norway spruce, blue spruce, white spruce, black spruce

the wood of any of these trees

Word Origin

C17: short for Spruce fir, from C14 Spruce Prussia, changed from Pruce, via Old French from Latin Prussia

spruce²

/spruːs/

adjective

neat, smart, and trim

Derived Forms

sprucely, adverb
spruceness, noun

Word Origin

C16: perhaps from Spruce leather a fashionable leather imported from Prussia; see spruce1

Word Origin and History for spruce

"evergreen tree," 1660s, from spruse (adj.) "made of spruce wood" (early 15c.), literally "from Prussia," from Spruce, Sprws (late 14c.), unexplained alterations of Pruce "Prussia," from an Old French form of Prussia. Spruce seems to have been a generic term for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, board, leather, see spruce (v.)), and the tree was believed to have come from Prussia.

1590s, from the adjective meaning "to make trim or neat," from spruce leather (mid-15c., see spruce (n.)), which was used to make a popular style of jerkins in the 1400s that was considered smart-looking.