Meanings
plural rumspringas
- UScountableuncountableA period of adolescence for some members of the Amish that begins around the age of 14–16 and ends when a youth chooses baptism within the Amish church or instead leaves the community.
At stake for the Amish community in the rumspringa process is nothing less than the survival of their sect and way of life. For if the unbaptized children who venture into the world at sixteen do not later return to the fold in sufficient numbers, the sect will dwindle and die out.
2007, Tom Shachtman, Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish, North Point Press, →ISBN
Origin
- Pennsylvania Germanrumspringe“to jump around”
- Englishrumspringa
Borrowed from Pennsylvania German rumspringe (“to jump around”). Compare German rumspringen.
More words from Pennsylvania German
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
rumspringa. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumspringa
“rumspringa.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumspringa. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rumspringa,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rumspringa.
Source: rumspringa on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.