Springer

How to spell springer

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce springer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does springer mean?

1. nounA spaniel of a breed traditionally used to flush game birds, short for springer spaniel.

Springer in a sentence

• The family adopted a springer from the local rescue centre.

• A working springer needs hours of exercise every day.

Where does springer come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a straightforward English formation: the verb 'spring' plus the agent suffix '-er', meaning literally 'one that springs'. The verb itself descends from the Old English 'springan', which meant to leap, burst forth, or rise quickly, and it has close cousins across the Germanic languages, including the German 'springen'. The same root that gives us a leaping motion also gives us the 'spring' of water that bursts from the ground and the 'spring' season when plants surge into growth. As a noun, 'springer' attached itself to several things that leap or rise: a kind of energetic gun dog that flushes, or 'springs', game birds into the air, and, in masonry, the stone at the foot of an arch from which the curve appears to spring upward. The dog sense, short for 'springer spaniel', became the most familiar everyday meaning by the nineteenth century.

How the word is built

• spring (to leap, from Old English springan)
• -er (agent noun suffix: one that does)