spruce

Multiple Entries:
  spruce    hemlock  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
spruce1

▶adjective neat and smart. ▶verb (spruce someone/thing up) make a person or place smarter.

– derivatives
sprucely adverb,
spruceness noun.

– origin C16: perh. from spruce2 in the obs. sense ‘Prussian’, in the phr. spruce (leather) jerkin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
spruce2

▶noun a widespread coniferous tree which has a distinctive conical shape and hanging cones, grown for wood, pulp, and Christmas trees. [Genus Picea: many species.]

– origin ME (denoting Prussia or something originating in Prussia): alt. of obs. Pruce ‘Prussia’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
spruce3

▶verb Brit. informal, dated engage in pretence, especially by feigning illness.

– derivatives
sprucer noun.

– origin early 20th cent.: of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
hemlock/ˈhemlɒk/

▶noun

• 1 a highly poisonous plant of the parsley family, with fern-like leaves, small white flowers, and an unpleasant smell. [Conium maculatum.]

  ■ a sedative or poisonous potion obtained from hemlock.

• 2 (also hemlock fir or spruce) a North American conifer with dark green foliage which is said to smell like hemlock when crushed. [Genus Tsuga: several species.]

– origin OE hymlice, hemlic, of unknown origin.