Offspring

How to spell offspring

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce offspring

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does offspring mean?

1. nounA person's child or children, or the young produced by an animal or plant.

Offspring in a sentence

• The couple raised their offspring in a small village near the coast.

• The breeder kept careful records of each mare and her offspring.

Where does offspring come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word, recorded in Old English as 'ofspring', formed simply from 'of', meaning 'off' or 'forth', and the verb 'springan', meaning 'to spring' or 'leap up'. The literal idea was of something that springs forth or issues from a source, which is exactly how children or young animals were pictured as coming from their parents. From the earliest records it was used for descendants and the young produced by living things, and it kept a broader figurative sense of anything that results or proceeds from something else. The spelling stayed close to its Germanic roots, with the doubled 'f' coming from running 'of' straight into 'spring', and the word never took a regular plural, so 'offspring' serves for both one child and many. It shares its springing imagery with everyday relatives like 'spring' the season and 'spring' the water source, all reaching back to the same Old English verb.

How the word is built

• off- (from Old English of: away, forth)
• spring (from springan: to spring or come forth)