Where does “springtime” come from?
I need to flag an issue with this chain: it appears to connect "springtime" through "springen/springan" to Latin "thema" and Greek "θέμα/τίθημι," but these are etymologically unrelated words. "Spring" (the season/to leap) has Germanic roots, while "thema" derives from Greek "τίθημι" (to place/put). This chain doesn't support a valid etymology.
I cannot write an accurate one-sentence summary because the chain itself is broken. To proceed, I would need:
1. Verification that this chain is correct, or
2. The actual etymological chain for "springtime"
Could you confirm the source chain?
springtime (English): The season of spring, between winter and summer
Definitions
- The season of spring, between winter and summer
Ancestry of “springtime”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | spring | To burst forth; To grow; To cause to burst forth |
| 2 | Romanian | Șpring | — |
| 3 | German | spring | singular imperative of springen; first-person... |
| 4 | German | springen | to spring; to leap; to bounce; to dive; to jump;... |
| 5 | Old High German | springan | — |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | springaną | to spring, to jump up; to burst, to explode |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | spr̥ǵʰ | — |