- spry (adj.)
- 1746, "active, nimble, vigorous, lively," dialectal, perhaps a shortening and alteration of sprightly [Barnhart], or from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse sprækr, dialectal Swedish sprygg "brisk, active"), from Proto-Germanic *sprek-, from PIE root *(s)preg- (2) "to jerk, scatter" (see sparse).
