Other forms: spruces
A spruce is an evergreen tree with short sharp needles set all round the twig. Christmas trees are usually one.
The needles going right round the shoot is how you tell a spruce from a fir, whose needles lie flatter, and the cones hang down rather than standing up. Spruce timber is light and strong and is used for building and for violins. There is an entirely separate adjective meaning neat and smart, and sprucing yourself up means tidying your appearance before going out.
The tree is Prussia. Middle English Spruce was an alteration of Pruce, meaning Prussia, and spruce first named goods brought to England from there by Hanseatic traders, so the tree is called after a trade route.
Middle English
Spruce
English, today
spruce
Built from
From Middle English Spruce, an alteration of Pruce (“Prussia”), from Medieval Latin -, from a bat - language, probably prg -; 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.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Man Called Ove, Trees & Flowers
First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.
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