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Origin and history of spree

spree(n.)

"a lively frolic, rowdy drinking bout," 1804, slang or colloquial, earliest in Scottish dialect works, a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps [Barnhart] an alteration of French esprit "lively wit" (see esprit), although early uses suggest the original pronunciation was as spray. According to Klein, Irish spre seems to be a loan-word from Old Norse sprakr. Watkins proposes a possible origin as an alteration of Scots spreath "cattle raid," from Gaelic sprédh, spré, "cattle; wealth," from Middle Irish preit, preid, "booty," ultimately from Latin praeda "plunder, booty" (see prey (n.)).

Anatoly Liberman (blog post Dec. 13, 2023) does not object to a Celtic origin, but points to the similar "skeleton" in spree, spark, sprinkle, Latin spargo (see sparse), and suggests "the sound group spr seems to have suggested to speakers the idea of spontaneous, unregulated growth."

The splore is a frolic, a merry meeting. In the slang language of the inhabitants of St Giles's, in London, it is called a spree or a go. [Note in "Select Scottish Songs, Ancient and Modern," vol. II, London, 1810]

In Foote's comedy "The Maid of Bath" (1794) the word appears as a Scottish dialect pronunciation of spry: " 'When I intermarried with Sir Launcelot Coldstream, I was en siek a spree lass as yoursel; and the baronet bordering upon his grand climacteric;' " etc.

also from 1804

Entries linking to spree

esprit(n.)

1590s, "liveliness, wit, vivacity," from French esprit "spirit, mind," from Old French espirit "spirit, soul" (12c.), from Latin spiritus "spirit" (see spirit (n.)). For initial e-, see e-.

Esprit de corps, recorded from 1780 in English, preserves the usual French sense. French also has the excellent phrase esprit de l'escalier, literally "spirit of the staircase," defined in OED as, "a retort or remark that occurs to a person after the opportunity to make it has passed." It also has esprit fort, a "strong-minded" person, one independent of current prejudices, especially a freethinker in religion.

prey(n.)

mid-13c., preie, "animal hunted for food, that which is seized by any carnivorous animal to be devoured" (also, figuratively, of souls captured by Satan, etc.), also "goods taken in war," from Old French preie "booty, animal taken in the chase" (mid-12c., Modern French proie), from Latin praeda "booty, plunder; game hunted."

This is from earlier praeheda, literally "something seized before," from PIE *prai-heda-; for the first element see prae-; the second element is related to the second element in prehendere "to grasp, seize" (from PIE root *ghend- "to seize, to take").

The meaning "act of preying or seizing upon anything" is from early 14c.; bird of prey is from late 14c. (fowl of prey is mid-14c.).