Upsprang

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To rise quickly or spring up abruptly, often with sudden movement or force
2. Describes something that appears or arises swiftly and unexpectedly
3. To jump or emerge suddenly from a place or state

Etymology: "Upsprang" is the simple past of "upspring," so its story is really the story of the verb behind it. That verb is built from two plain English parts: "up" and "spring." Old English speakers formed "uppspringan" from these same pieces, meaning roughly to leap or rise up, and the noun "upspring" meant origin, birth, or a rising up, as in a welling source of water. The sense of something coming up out of the ground or from a source is the older one, and the modern idea of something suddenly appearing grows naturally from it. The same root shows up in neighbouring Germanic languages. Old Saxon "upspring" meant a well or spring of water, and Middle Low German "upspringen" meant to spring up or grow. These cognates suggest the word was never a rare coinage but a shared Germanic way of describing growth and emergence.

Synonyms: leaped, bounded, jumped, sprang, vaulted

Antonyms: fell, descended, dropped, collapsed, plummeted