Other forms: sprigs
A sprig is a small shoot with leaves on it. A sprig of rosemary, garnish with a sprig, a sprig of holly.
It is the unit herbs are measured in when nobody wants to weigh them, which is why recipes say a sprig of thyme and mean whatever is reasonable. A sprig of white heather is a luck charm in Scotland. Note that the origin of the word is uncertain.
1nounsprigA small shoot with leaves on it.
“Decorate each plate with a sprig of fresh mint.”
sprig is a shoot.
Middle English sprig is of uncertain origin, perhaps from a Low German word for a dry twig.
Middle Low German
sprik
Middle English
sprig
English, today
sprig
Built from
From Middle English sprig, sprigge, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Middle Low German sprik, spricke (“a dry, easily broken twig that has fallen from a tree; sprig”). Compare also dialectal English sprag (“sprig, twig”), English spray (“branch”), Old English spræc (“a shoot”), German Low German Spricke, Sprick (“dry branch, twig”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA