different between frolic vs spring

English

Alternative forms

• frolick

Etymology

From Dutch vrolijk (“cheerful”), from Middle Dutch vrolijc, from Old Dutch fr?l?k, from Proto-Germanic *frawal?kaz. Compare German fröhlich (“blitheful, gaily, happy, merry”).

The first element, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *frawaz, is cognate with Middle English frow (“hasty”); the latter element, ultimately from *-l?kaz, is cognate with -ly, -like.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??l?k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??l?k/
• Rhymes: -?l?k
• Hyphenation: frol?ic

Adjective

frolic (comparative more frolic, superlative most frolic)

1. (now rare) Merry, joyous, full of mirth; later especially, frolicsome, sportive, full of playful mischief. [from 1530s]
   • 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro” in Poems, London: Humphrey Moseley, p. 31,^[1]

     The frolick wind that breathes the Spring,

     Zephyr with Aurora playing,

     As he met her once a Maying

     There on Beds of Violets blew,

   • 1682, Edmund Waller, “Of Love” in Poems, &c. written upon several occasions, and to several persons, London: H. Herringman, 5th edition, 1686, p. 73,^[2]

     For women, born to be controul’d,

     Stoop to the forward and the bold,

     Affect the haughty and the proud,

     The gay, the frollick, and the loud.
2. (obsolete, rare) Free; liberal; bountiful; generous.

Verb

frolic (third-person singular simple present frolics, present participle frolicking, simple past and past participle frolicked)

1. (intransitive) To make merry; to have fun; to romp; to behave playfully and uninhibitedly. [from 1580s]

2. (transitive, archaic) To cause to be merry.

Inflection

Derived terms

• rollick

Translations

Noun

frolic (plural frolics)

1. Gaiety; merriment. [from 1610s]
   • 1832-1888, Louisa May Alcott

     the annual jubilee […] filled the souls of old and young with visions of splendour, frolic and fun.

   • 2012 (original 1860), Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun - Page 276:

     By the old-fashioned magnificence of this procession, it might worthily have included his Holiness in person, with a suite of attendant Cardinals, if those sacred dignitaries would kindly have lent their aid to heighten the frolic of the Carnival.

2. A playful antic.
   • 1680, James Dillon, 3rd Earl of Roscommon, Art of Poetry

     He would be at his frolic once again.

3. (obsolete, chiefly US) A social gathering.

Translations

See also

• cavort

Related terms

• frolicsome

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “frolic”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN

English

Etymology

As a verb, from Middle English springen (“to burst or flow forth, to sprout, to emerge, to happen, to become known, to sprinkle”), from Old English springan (“to burst or flow forth, to sprout, to emerge, to become known”), cognate with Afrikaans spring, West Frisian springe, Dutch & German springen, Danish springe, Swedish springa. Further etymology is uncertain, but usually taken to derive from a Proto-Germanic verb reconstructed as *springan? (“to burst forth”), from a Proto-Indo-European root reconstructed *sper??- whose other descendants may include Lithuanian spreñgti (“to push (in)”), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (pr?sti, “to spin, to stretch”), Latin spargere (“to sprinkle, to scatter”), Ancient Greek ?????? (spérkh?, “to hasten”), Sanskrit ???????? (sp?háyati, “to be eager”). Some newer senses derived from the noun.

As a noun, from Middle English spring (“a wellspring, tide, branch, sunrise, kind of dance or blow, ulcer, snare, flock”), from Old English spring (“wellspring, ulcer”) and Old English spryng (“a jump”), from ablaut forms of the Proto-Germanic verb. Further senses derived from the verb and from clippings of day-spring, springtime, spring tide, etc. Its sense as the season, first attested in a work predating 1325, gradually replaced Old English lencten (“spring, Lent”) as that word became more specifically liturgical. Compare fall.

Pronunciation

• enPR: spr?ng, IPA^(key): /sp???/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springing, simple past sprang or sprung, past participle sprung)

1. (intransitive) To burst forth.
   1. (of liquids) To gush, to flow suddenly and violently.
      • Beowulf, ll. 2966–7:

        ...for swenge swat ædrum sprong
        forð under fexe.

        ...for the swing, the blood from his veins sprang
        forth under his hair.

      • c. 1540, John Bellenden translating Livy as History of Rome, Vol. I, i, xxii, p. 125:

        ...þe wound þat was springand with huge stremes of blude...

   2. (of water, now mostly followed by "out" or "up") To gush, to flow out of the ground.
   3. (of light) To appear, to dawn.
      • 1611, Bible (KJV), Judges, 19:25:

        ...so the man tooke his concubine, and brought her foorth vnto them, and they knew her, and abused her all the night vntil the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her goe.

   4. (of plants) To sprout, to grow,
      • 1611, Bible (KJV), Job, 38:25–27:

        Who hath diuided a water-course for the ouerflowing of waters? or a way for the lightning of thunder,
        To cause it to raine on the earth, where no man is: on the wildernesse wherein there is no man?
        To satisfie the desolate and waste ground, and to cause the bud of the tender herbe to spring forth.

      • 1936, Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence People, p. 42:

        Dr. Sigmund Freud... says that everything you and I do springs from two motives: the sex urge and the desire to be great.

      • 1974, James Albert Michener, Centennial, p. 338:

        There was moisture in the ground, and from it sprang a million flowers, gold and blue and brown and red.

      • 2006, N. Roberts, Morrigann's Cross, vi:

        Foxglove sprang tall and purple among the trees.

   5. (now chiefly botanical) To grow taller or longer.
   6. (hunting, especially of birds) To rise from cover.
   7. (of landscape) To come dramatically into view.
   8. (figuratively) to arise, to come into existence.

      Synonyms: arise, form, take shape

   9. (figuratively, Usually with cardinal adverbs, of animals) to move with great speed and energy; to leap, to jump; to dart, to sprint; of people: to rise rapidly from a seat, bed, etc.
      • c. 1250, Life of St Margaret, Trin. Col. MS B.14.39 (323), f. 22v:

        ...into helle spring...

      • 1474, William Caxton translator, Game and Playe of the Chesse, iii, vii, 141:

        Ye kynge... sprange out of his chare and resseyuyd them worshipfully.

      • 1722, Ambrose Philips, The Briton:

        ...the Mountain Stag, that springs
        From Height to Height, and bounds along the Plains,
        Nor has a Master to restrain his Course...

      • 1827, Clement Clarke Moore, "(A Visit from St. Nicholas)":

        ...out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
        I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

      • 2011 April 11, The Atlantic:

        Reporters sprang to the conclusion that the speech would make detailed new commitments...

      Synonyms: bound, jump, leap

   10. (usually with from) To be born, descend, or originate from

   11. (figuratively, religion, philosophy) to descend or originate from.

   12. (obsolete) To rise in social position or military rank, to be promoted.
   13. (obsolete, of knowledge, usually with wide) To become known, to spread.
   14. (obsolete, of odors) To emit, to spread.
2. (transitive, archaic, of beards) To grow.
   • c. 1330,, "Otuel", The Taill of Rauf Coilyear, ll. 1445–6:

     A ?ong kni?t, þat sprong furst [berd],
     Of no man he nas aferd.

3. (transitive) To cause to burst forth.
   1. (rare, of water) To cause to well up or flow out of the ground.
   2. (figuratively, of plants) To bring forth.
      1. (obsolete) permit to bring forth new shoots, leaves, etc.
   3. (obsolete, of knowledge) To cause to become known, to tell of.
   4. (figuratively, of animals) To cause to move energetically; (equestrianism) to cause to gallop, to spur.
      • 1986 April 25, Horse & Hound, p. 40:

        Just before the last pair of cones he sprung his ponies.

      • 2003 July 10, Daily Telegraph, p. 7:

        Simple tricks such as an ‘ollie’—springing the board into mid-air—can be picked up in just a couple of weeks.

   5. (hunting, of birds) To cause to rise from cover.

   6. (obsolete, military, of weapons) To shift quickly from one designated position to another.
      • 1833, Regulations for the Instruction... of the Cavalry, i, i, 29:

        Each man springs his ramrod as the officer passes him, and then returns it.

   7. (obsolete, of horses) To breed with, to impregnate.
      • 1585, Thomas Washington translating Nicolas De Nicolay as The Navigations, Peregrinations, and Voyages, Made into Turkie..., Bk. IV, p. 154:

        ...[they] sought the fairest stoned horses to spring their mares...

   8. (of mechanisms) To cause to work or open by sudden application of pressure.
      • 1747, The London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer

        On the 23d, the Besiegers sprung a Mine under the Salient Angle, upon the Right of the Haif Moon, which had the desired Success, the Enemy's Gallery on that Side, and the Mason-Work of the Counterscarp, being thereby demolished.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To make wet, to moisten.
5. (intransitive, usually with "to" or "up") To rise suddenly, (of tears) to well up.

6. (intransitive, now usually with "apart" or "open") To burst into pieces, to explode, to shatter.
   • 1698, François Froger, A Relation of a Voyage Made... on the Coasts of Africa, p. 30:

     On the 22nd the mines sprang, and took very good effect.

7. (obsolete, military) to go off.
   • 2012 April 21, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 5:

     The whole contraption appears liable to spring apart at any moment.

8. (transitive, military) To cause to explode, to set off, to detonate.
   • 1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, Vol. II, x, ix:

     They sprung another Mine... wherein was placed about sixtie Barrels of Powder.

9. (intransitive, nautical, usually perfective) To crack.
   • 2011, Julian Stockwin, Conquest, p. 177:

     Probably the mast had sprung in some squall.

10. (transitive, nautical) To have something crack.
    • 1582 August 2, Richard Madox, diary:

      The Edward sprang hir foremast.

11. (transitive, nautical) To cause to crack.
    • a. 1653, Zacharie Boyd, "Zion's Flowers":

      A boisterous wind...
      Springs the... mast...

13. (transitive, figuratively) To surprise by sudden or deft action.
    1. To come upon and flush out
       • 1819, James Hardy Vaux, "A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language", Memoirs, Vol. II, s.v. "Plant":

         To spring a plant, is to find any thing that has been concealed by another.

    2. (Australia, slang) to catch in an illegal act or compromising position.
       • 1980, John Hepworth & al., Boozing Out in Melbourne Pubs..., p. 42:

         He figured that nobody would ever spring him, but he figured wrong.

    3. (obsolete) To begin something.
    4. (obsolete) To produce, provide, or place an item unexpectedly.
       • 1700, John Dryden translating Ovid as "Cinyras and Myrrha" in Fables, p. 178:

         Surpriz'd with Fright,
         She starts, and leaves her Bed, and springs a Light.

       • 1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, Vol. I, p. 53:

         It's a feast at a poor country labourer's place, when he springs six-penn'orth of fresh herrings.

    5. (obsolete, slang) To put bad money into circulation.
    6. (obsolete, of jokes, gags) To tell, to share.
    7. (of news, surprises) To announce unexpectedly, to reveal.

    8. (transitive, slang, US) To free from imprisonment, especially by facilitating an illegal escape.

       Synonyms: free, let out, release, spring loose
    9. (intransitive, slang, rare) To be free of imprisonment, especially by illegal escape.
14. (transitive, architecture, of arches) To build, to form the initial curve of.

15. (intransitive, architecture, of arches, with "from") To extend, to curve.

16. (transitive, nautical) To turn a vessel using a spring attached to its anchor cable.
17. (transitive, obsolete, nautical) To raise a vessel's sheer.
18. (transitive, obsolete, cobblery) To raise a last's toe.
19. (transitive) To pay or spend a certain sum, to cough up.
    • 1957, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, Over Seventy, p. 137:

      He wouldn't spring a nickel for a bag of peanuts.

20. (obsolete, intransitive, slang) To raise an offered price.
21. (transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of sprain.
22. (transitive, US, dialectal) Alternative form of strain.
23. (intransitive, obsolete) To act as a spring: to strongly rebound.
24. (transitive, rare) To equip with springs, especially (of vehicles) to equip with a suspension.
25. (transitive, rare, obsolete) To provide spring or elasticity
26. (figuratively, rare, obsolete) to inspire, to motivate.
27. (transitive) To deform owing to excessive pressure, to become warped; to intentionally deform in order to position and then straighten in place.
    • 1873 July, Routledge's Young Gentleman's Magazine, p. 503:

      Don't drive it in too hard, as it will ‘spring’ the plane-iron, and make it concave.

28. (intransitive, now rare) To reach maturity, to be fully grown.
29. (intransitive, Britain, dialectal, chiefly of cows) To swell with milk or pregnancy.
    • 1955, Patrick White, The Tree of Man, New York: Viking, Chapter 15, p. 228,^[2]

      “Gee, Dad, Nancy’s springing all right,” Ray said and paused in spontaneous pleasure.

      Stan Parker came, and together they looked at their swelling heifer.

30. (transitive, of rattles, archaic) To sound, to play.
31. (intransitive, obsolete) To spend the springtime somewhere
    1. (of animals) to find or get enough food during springtime.

Usage notes

• The past-tense forms sprang and sprung are both well attested historically. In modern usage, sprang is comparatively formal (and more often considered correct), sprung comparatively informal. The past participle, however, is overwhelmingly sprung; sprang as a past participle is attested, but is no longer in standard use.

Synonyms

• (come into being): see also Thesaurus:come into being

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

spring (countable and uncountable, plural springs)

1. (countable) An act of springing: a leap, a jump.
   • 1700, John Dryden, "The Cock and the Fox":

     The pris'ner with a spring from prison broke;
     Then stretch'd his feather'd fans with all his might,
     And to the neighb'ring maple wing'd his flight.

2. (countable) The season of the year in temperate regions in which plants spring from the ground and into bloom and dormant animals spring to life.

   Synonym: springtime

   Coordinate terms: summer, autumn or fall, winter

   1. (astronomy) The period from the moment of vernal equinox (around March 21 in the Northern Hemisphere) to the moment of the summer solstice (around June 21); the equivalent periods reckoned in other cultures and calendars.

   2. (meteorology) The three months of March, April, and May in the Northern Hemisphere and September, October, and November in the Southern Hemisphere.

3. (uncountable, figuratively) The time of something's growth; the early stages of some process.
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), 1 Samuel 9:26:

     ...and it came to passe about the spring of the day, that Samuel called Saul to the top of the house...
4. (countable, fashion) Someone with ivory or peach skin tone and eyes and hair that are not extremely dark, seen as best suited to certain colors of clothing.
5. (countable) Something which springs, springs forth, springs up, or springs back, particularly
   1. (geology) A spray or body of water springing from the ground.

      Synonyms: fount, source

   2. (oceanography, obsolete) The rising of the sea at high tide.
   3. (oceanography) Short for spring tide, the especially high tide shortly after full and new moons.

      Antonym: neap tide

   4. A mechanical device made of flexible or coiled material that exerts force and attempts to spring back when bent, compressed, or stretched.

      Synonym: coil

   5. (nautical) A line from a vessel's end or side to its anchor cable used to diminish or control its movement.
      • 1836, Frederick Marryat, Mr. Midshipman Easy, Vol. III, p. 72:

        He had warped round with the springs on his cable, and had recommenced his fire upon the Aurora.

   6. (nautical) A line laid out from a vessel's end to the opposite end of an adjacent vessel or mooring to diminish or control its movement.
      • 1769, William Falconer, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine, s.v.:

        Spring is likewise a rope reaching diagonally from the stern of a ship to the head of another which lies along-side or a-breast of her.

      • 2007 January 26, Business Times:

        ‘Springs’ are the ropes used on a ship that is alongside a berth to prevent fore and aft movements.

   7. (figuratively) A race, a lineage.
   8. (figuratively) A youth.
   9. A shoot, a young tree.
   10. A grove of trees; a forest.
6. (countable, slang) An erection of the penis. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. (countable, nautical, obsolete) A crack which has sprung up in a mast, spar, or (rare) a plank or seam.
   • 1846, Arthur Young, Nautical Dictionary, p. 292:

     A spar is said to be sprung, when it is cracked or split,... and the crack is called a spring.

8. (uncountable) Springiness: an attribute or quality of springing, springing up, or springing back, particularly
   1. Elasticity: the property of a body springing back to its original form after compression, stretching, etc.

      Synonyms: bounce, bounciness, elasticity, resilience, springiness

   2. Elastic energy, power, or force.
      • 1697, John Dryden, Virgil's Aeneis, Bk. xi, ll. 437–8:

        Heav'ns what a spring was in his Arm, to throw:
        How high he held his Shield, and rose at ev'ry blow!
9. (countable) The source from which an action or supply of something springs.
   • 1611, Bible (KJV), Psalms 87:7:

     As wel the singers as the players on instruments shall bee there: all my springs are in thee.

   • 1693, Richard Bentley, The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism..., Sermon 1:

     Such a man can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him, he can patiently suffer all things with cheerfull submission and resignation to the Divine Will. He has a secret Spring of spiritual Joy, and the continual Feast of a good Conscience within, that forbid him to be miserable.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 1:

     ‘Have you ever contemplated, Adrian, the phenomenon of springs?’
     ‘Coils, you mean?’
     ‘Not coils, Adrian, no. Coils not. Think springs of water. Think wells and spas and sources. Well-springs in the widest and loveliest sense. Jerusalem, for instance, is a spring of religiosity. One small town in the desert, but the source of the world’s three most powerful faiths... Religion seems to bubble from its sands.’

   Synonyms: impetus, impulse

10. (countable) Something which causes others or another to spring forth or spring into action, particularly
    1. A cause, a motive, etc.
       • 1713, Alexander Pope, Prologue to Cato, a Tragedy by Joseph Addison

         Our author shuns by vulgar springs to move
         The hero's glory, or the virgin's love.

    2. (obsolete) A lively piece of music.

Usage notes

Note that season names are not capitalized in modern English unless at the beginning of a sentence, for example, I can't wait for spring to arrive. Exceptions occur when the season is personified, as in Old Man Winter, is used as part of a name, as in the Winter War, or is used as a given name, as in Summer Glau. This is in contrast to the days of the week and months of the year, which are always capitalized (Thursday or September).

Synonyms

• (time of growth, early stages): See Thesaurus:beginning

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• geyser
• Hooke's law
• seep
• Slinky
• vernal
• well

References

• “spring, n¹.”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2017
• “spring, n².”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2017
• “spring, n³.”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2017
• “spring, v¹.”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2017
• “spring, v².”, in OED Online ?, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2017
• “spring, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2018.
• “springen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2018.

Danish

Etymology

Verbal noun to springe.

Noun

spring n (singular definite springet, plural indefinite spring)

1. spring, jump, vault, leap

Declension

Related terms

Verb

spring

1. imperative of springe

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spr??/
• Rhymes: -??

Verb

spring

1. first-person singular present indicative of springen
2. imperative of springen

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p???/

Verb

spring

1. singular imperative of springen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of springen

Icelandic

Verb

spring

1. inflection of springa:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

Middle English

Alternative forms

• springe

Etymology

From Old English spring, spryng.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sprin?/, [spri??]

Noun

spring (plural springes)

1. spring, (natural) fountain, font.
2. sprout, shoot
3. sunrise
4. leap, jump
5. (rare) spring (season)

Descendants

• English: spring
• Scots: spring

See also

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

spring

1. imperative of springe

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

spring

1. present of springa

Scots

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [spr??]

Noun

spring (plural springs)

1. spring, springtime
2. growth of vegetation in springtime

Verb

tae spring (third-person singular simple present springs, present participle springin, simple past sprang, past participle sprung)

1. to spring
2. to leap over, cross at a bound
3. to put forth, send up or out
4. to burst, split, break apart, break into
5. to dance a reel

Swedish

Noun

spring n

1. a running (back and forth)
   • 1918, Goss-skolan i Plumfield, the Swedish translation of Louisa M. Alcott, Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys (1871)

     Eftermiddagen tillbragtes med att ordna sakerna, och när springet och släpet och hamrandet var förbi, inbjödos damerna att beskåda anstalten.

     The afternoon was spent in arranging things, and when the running and lugging and hammering was over, the ladies were invited to behold the institution.

Declension

Verb

spring

1. imperative of springa.