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spring (n.1)[spring 词源字典]: season following winter, the vernal season, c. 1400, earlier springing time (late 14c.), which replaced Lent, the Old English word. From spring (v.); also see spring (n.3). The notion is of the "spring of the year," when plants begin to rise (as in spring of the leaf, 1520s), from the noun in its old sense of "action or time of rising or springing into existence." It was used of sunrise, the waxing of the moon, rising tides, etc.; compare 14c. spring of dai "sunrise," spring of mone "moonrise," late Old English spring "carbuncle, pustule."

Other Germanic languages tend to take words for "fore" or "early" as their roots for the season name (Danish voraar, Dutch voorjaar, literally "fore-year;" German Frühling, from Middle High German vrueje "early"). In 15c. English, the season also was prime-temps, after Old French prin tans, tamps prim (French printemps, which replaced primevère 16c. as the common word for spring), from Latin tempus primum, literally "first time, first season."

Spring fever is from 1843 as "surge of romantic feelings;" earlier of a type of disease or head-cold prevalent in certain places in spring; Old English had lenctenadle. First record of spring cleaning in the domestic sense is by 1843 (in ancient Persia, the first month, corresponding to March-April, was Adukanaiša, which apparently means "Irrigation-Canal-Cleaning Month;" Kent, p.167). Spring chicken "small roasting chicken" (usually 11 to 14 weeks) is recorded from 1780; transferred sense of "young person" first recorded 1906. Baseball spring training attested by 1889, earlier of militias, etc.[spring etymology, spring origin, 英语词源]
spring (n.2): "source of a stream or river, flow of water rising to the surface of the earth from below," Old English spring "spring, source, sprinkling," from spring (v.) on the notion of the water "bursting forth" from the ground. Rarely used alone in Old English, appearing more often in compounds, such as wyllspring "wellspring," espryng "water spring." Figurative sense of "source or origin of something" is attested from early 13c. Cognate with Old High German sprung "source of water," Middle High German sprinc "leap, jump; source of water."
spring (n.3): "act of springing or leaping," late 14c., from spring (v.). The elastic wire coil that returns to its shape when stretched is so called from early 15c., originally in clocks and watches. As a device in carriages, coaches, etc., it is attested from 1660s.
spring-house (n.): also springhouse, 1762, from spring (n.2) + house (n.).
springboard (n.): also spring-board, 1799, from spring (v.) + board (n.1).
springbok (n.): South African gazelle, 1775, from Afrikaans, from springen "to leap" (from Middle Dutch springhen, see spring (v.)) + bok "antelope," from Middle Dutch boc (see buck (n.1)).
springer (n.): "one who or that which leaps," mid-14c. (late 12c. as a surname), agent noun from spring (v.). As a type of spaniel, 1808, so called from being used originally to rouse (that is, to "spring") game.
Springfield: type of firearm, 1813, named for the U.S. government armory in Springfield, Mass.
springtime (n.): also spring-time, late 15c., from spring (n.1) + time (n.).
springy (adj.): "elastic," 1650s, from spring (v.) + -y (2). Related: Springiness.
sprinkle (v.): late 14c. (implied in sprinkled), frequentative of sprenge (see spring (v.)) or via Middle Dutch, Middle Low German sprenkel "spot, speck," from PIE root *(s)preg- "to jerk, scatter" (cognates: Latin spargere "to scatter, sprinkle"). The meaning "rain lightly" is first recorded 1778.
sprinkler (n.): 1530s, agent noun from sprinkle (v.).
sprinkling (n.): mid-15c., "act of sprinkling," verbal noun from sprinkle (v.). Meaning "small amount" is from 1590s.
sprint (v.): 1560s, "to spring, dart," probably an alteration of sprenten "to leap, spring" (early 14c.), from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse spretta "to jump up" (cognate with Swedish spritta "to start, startle"). Meaning "to run a short distance at full speed" first recorded 1871. Related: Sprinted; sprinting.
sprint (n.): "short burst of running, etc.," 1865, from sprint (v.).
sprinter (n.): 1871, agent noun from sprint (v.).
sprit (n.): Old English spreot "pole, pike, spear," originally "a sprout, shoot, branch," from Proto-Germanic *sprut- (see sprout (v.)). Cognate with Middle Dutch spriet, Middle Low German spryet, German Spriet, North Frisian sprit. Restricted nautical sense of "diagonal spar from a mast" is from 14c. Related: Spritsail.
sprite (n.): c. 1300, "Holy Ghost," from Old French esprit "spirit," from Latin spiritus (see spirit (n.)). From mid-14c. as "immaterial being; angel, demon, elf, fairy; apparition, ghost."
spritz (v.): 1917, from Yiddish or directly from German spritzen "to squirt," from Middle High German sprützen "to squirt, sprout," from Proto-Germanic *sprut- (see sprout (v.)). Spritzer "glass of wine mixed with carbonated water" is from 1961.
sprocket (n.): 1530s, originally a carpenters' word for a piece of timber used in framing, of unknown origin. The meaning "projection from the rim of a wheel that engages the links of a chain" is first recorded 1750.