sprit

Meanings

1. A spar between mast and upper outer corner of a spritsail on sailing boats.
2. A shoot; a sprout.

1. To sprout; to bud; to germinate, as barley steeped for malt.
2. To throw out with force from a narrow orifice; to eject; to spurt out.

Etymology

From Middle English sprete, from Old English sprēot (“pole, pike, spear”), from Proto-Germanic *spreut, related to Proto-West Germanic *sprutō (“shoot, sprout”). Cognate with West Frisian spriet (“sprit, spoke”), Dutch spriet (“a sprit, blade, spar, shoot, sprig”), Middle High German spriez (“sprout, twig”).