Chrysti The Wordsmith: Spree - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. After the word spree s p r e e came to my attention the other day. I decided just for fun to search the New York Times for citations of the term. According to the publications online archives spree appeared ten thousand times in articles and headlines within the past year. Now the majority of the citations were the predictable shopping spree buying crime and drinking spree and spending spree which has a very nice alliterative lilt But some writers got creative with the word and paired spree with such nouns as investment saving building debt and power spree in the diners journal section of The New York Times. I found articles on a wine tasting spree and an anchovy spree ten thousand New York Times citations. Now this term has legs. A spree of course is a session of reckless indulgence. The term began appearing in the early 1900s according to the Oxford English Dictionary which also calls spary quote a slang word of obscure

origin. While searching for more satisfying clues about sprees derivation I turned to the dictionary of word origins which says tantalizingly. According to some the word is from the French s believe meaning spirit though that statement is unsubstantiated it has logic. After all sprit is a heedless session of spirited overindulgence. Next time more of Sprit Plus a look at its synonym hinge. I'm Christi the wordsmith Christie the wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.