spruce beer

English

Etymology

German Sprossenbier. Sprosse (“sprout, shoot”) was changed into spruce because the beer came from Prussia, or because it was made from the sprouts of the spruce.

Noun

spruce beer (countable and uncountable, plural spruce beers)

1. (Canada, US) A kind of beer which is flavored with parts of the spruce tree.
2. (Canada, US) A spruce-flavored soft drink.

References

• “spruce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.