Now dial. Forms: 1 spryttan, 3 sprutten, 7– sprit. [OE. spryttan:—*sprutjan, f. the weak grade of the stem represented by SPROUT v.1 Cf. SPIRT v.2 and SPURT v.2] intr. To sprout or shoot; to germinate.
c. 900. trans. Baeda’s Ecl. Hist., I. xxi. (heading), Eft spryttendum [v.r. sprutendum] þam twiʓum ðæs Pelagianiscan woles.
c. 1000. Saxon Leechd., II. 148. Þonne treow & wytta ærest up spryttað.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 86. Ase þe wiði þet sprutteð ut þe betere þet me hine ofte croppeð.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 60. Some affirm that Corn spritted a little,… and then sowen, came up speedily.
1844. Phytologist, I. 584. Do the seeds of pasture grasses ever germinate in the husk, like wheat, when it is said to ‘sprit’?
1886–7. in Cheshire glossaries.
