sprout

US/spɹaʊt/

verbC12 meanings Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,695 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: sprouts, sprouting, sprouted

To sprout is to send up a first small shoot. Seeds sprouting, sprout leaves, sprouted in a week.

It is what a seed does when warmth and water reach it, and sprouting is also a deliberate kitchen process — beans and seeds are sprouted for eating. Figuratively anything can sprout: sprouting a beard, new shops sprouting everywhere. As a noun, sprouts are Brussels sprouts in Britain by default, and no other vegetable divides a Christmas table so reliably.

Definitions of sprout

1verbsproutTo send up a first small shoot.C1
“After a week on the windowsill, the beans began to sprout.”
2nounbrusselsA Brussels sprout, in British use.B1
“He pushed the last sprout to the side of his plate and hoped nobody would notice.”

Also practised as

nounA small green vegetable like a tiny cabbage, eaten in winter.

Where it comes from

Middle English sprouten comes from a Germanic root about shooting up. Spurt, sprit and the Dutch spruit come from the same growth.

Middle English
sproute
English, today
sprout

From Middle English sproute, either from Middle English sprouten (“to sprout”) (see below); or from Middle Dutch sprute or Middle Low German sprûte (“sprout”), all related to Proto-West Germanic spreutan. a doublet of spruit.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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