Where does “spruce up” come from?

spruce up (English) comes from English spruce, from Middle English Spruce, from Middle English Pruce, from Latin Prussia, from Middle High German Prūzin.

spruce up (English): To dress or arrange smartly, elegantly, and...

Definitions

  1. To dress or arrange smartly, elegantly, and...

Ancestry of “spruce up”, step by step

spruce up traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English spruce

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishspruceAny of various large coniferous evergreen trees...
2Middle EnglishSpruce—
3Middle EnglishPrucePrussia
4LatinPrussia—
5Middle High GermanPrūzin—

via English up

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishupAway from the surface of the Earth or other...
2Middle Englishupto a vertical axis
3Old Englishuppup; upstairs
4Proto-West Germanic*upp—
Every word from Middle High German Prūzin →Every word from Latin Prussia →Every word from Middle English Pruce →