spruce

Meaning

1. Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees or shrubs from the genus Picea, found in northern temperate and boreal regions; originally and more fully spruce fir.
2. The wood of a spruce.
3. Made of the wood of the spruce.
4. (obsolete) Prussian leather; pruce.

smart

slick up

spruce-fir

well groomed

be smart

be beautiful

be elegant

be gaudily dressed

look chic

spruce fir

white wood

tog out

get dressed up

well-arranged

well-shaped

lacquer tree

attend on

true fir

nice in appearance

well - groomed

neartly dressed

Picea asperata

dragon spruce

debonair

fir tree

in good condition

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/spɹuːs/

Inherited from Middle English

Spruce

In summary

From Middle English Spruce, an alteration of Pruce (“Prussia”), from Medieval Latin, from a Baltic language, probably Old Prussian; for more, see Prussia. Spruce, spruse (1412), and Sprws (1378) were terms for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, wood, leather). The tree with this name was also believed to have been native to Prussia. The adjective and verb senses ("trim, neat" and "to make trim, neat") are attested from 1594, and originate with spruce leather (1466), which was used to make a popular style of jerkins in the 1400s that was considered smart-looking.

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