different between spruce vs jemmy

English

Etymology

From Middle English Spruce, an alteration of Pruce (“Prussia”), from Medieval Latin, from a Baltic language, probably Old Prussian; 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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: spro?os, (US) IPA^(key): /sp?u?s/
• Rhymes: -u?s

Noun

spruce (countable and uncountable, plural spruces or spruce)

1. Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees or shrubs from the genus Picea, found in northern temperate and boreal regions; originally and more fully spruce fir.
2. (uncountable) The wood of a spruce.
3. (used attributively) Made of the wood of the spruce.

4. (obsolete) Prussian leather; pruce.

Derived terms

• black spruce (Picea mariana)
• blue spruce (Picea pungens)
• dark-bark spruce (Picea jezoensis)
• Engelmann's spruce (Picea engelmannii)
• European spruce (Picea abies)
• Koyama's spruce (Picea koyamae)
• Norway spruce (Picea abies)
• red spruce (Picea rubens)
• Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis)
• white spruce (Picea glauca)

Translations

See also

• Spruce on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Picea on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

Adjective

spruce (comparative sprucer, superlative sprucest)

1. (comparable) Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person).
   • 1919, William Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 31

     He had great neatness of person, and he continued to wear his spruce black coat and his bowler hat, always a little too small for him, in a dapper, jaunty manner.

   • 2012, The Economist, 13th Oct 2012, Plessey returns: Chips with everything

     The two clean rooms, where chips are made, are sprucer than a hospital theatre.

Translations

Verb

spruce (third-person singular simple present spruces, present participle sprucing, simple past and past participle spruced)

1. (usually with up) To arrange neatly; tidy up.
2. (transitive, intransitive, usually with up) To make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance).
3. To tease. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• spruce up

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “spruce”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• cusper, recups

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?mi

Noun

jemmy (plural jemmies)

1. (archaic, Britain, slang) A baked sheep's head.
2. (Australia, slang) An immigrant.
3. (obsolete, slang) A greatcoat.

   • your friend in the green jemmy

4. Alternative spelling of jimmy (crowbar).

Verb

jemmy (third-person singular simple present jemmies, present participle jemmying, simple past and past participle jemmied)

1. To shoehorn, to cram.

   two thousand people jemmied into a stadium built for fifteen hundred

2. Alternative spelling of jimmy (open with a crowbar).

Translations

Adjective

jemmy (comparative jemmier, superlative jemmiest)

1. (archaic) Neat; elegant.
   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 209:

     I was agreeably surprised by seeing my young friend and companion, Robert Pott, driving up the avenue in a very jemmy equipage.

See also

• jimmy

References

• jemmy in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.