spree

spree · noun, verb¹

1. Latin · derived frompraeda“plunder, booty”
2. Middle Irish · derived frompreit
3. Scots · derived fromspreath“cattle raid”
4. Old Norse · derived fromsprakr
5. Irish · derived fromspré
6. French · derived fromesprit“lively wit”
7. English todayspree

Unknown. According to Douglas Harper’s Online Etymological Dictionary, “a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps [Barnhart] an alteration of French esprit (“lively wit”) (see esprit). According to Klein, Irish spré seems to be a loan-word from Old Norse sprakr. Watkins proposes a possible origin as an alteration of Scots spreath (“cattle raid”), from Gaelic sprédh, spré (“cattle; wealth”), from Middle Irish preit, preid (“booty”), ultimately from Latin praeda (“plunder, booty”)”.

Spree · proper noun²

1. German · borrowed fromSpree
2. German · borrowed fromSpree
3. English todaySpree

Borrowed from German Spree.

Words from the same roots