means The act of a seed or plant putting out its first shoots or buds as it begins to grow.

from From the Old English "sprutan," to sprout or grow — a root shared across the Germanic languages, including Dutch "spruiten" and German "spriessen." It belongs to a cluster of "spr-" words (sprout, spray, sprig, spring) that all carry a sense of something bursting outward, possibly echoing an ancient root for swelling or shooting up.