Etymology Unknown. According to Douglas Harper’s Online Etymological Dictionary, “a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps [Barnhart] an alteration of French esprit (“lively wit”) (see esprit). According to Klein, Irish spré seems to be a loan-word from Old Norse sprakr. Watkins proposes a possible origin as an alteration of Scots spreath (“cattle raid”), from Gaelic sprédh, spré (“cattle; wealth”), from Middle Irish preit, preid (“booty”), ultimately from Latin praeda (“plunder, booty”)”.
Then all three major builders were called upon to deliver 105 Berkshires before the buying spree was over.1959, David P. Morgan, editor, Steam’s Finest Hour, Kalmbach Publishing Co., page 27:
1 more example
Twitter has been on a hiring spree, spending $630 million on stock-based compensation in 2021, a 33 percent increase from the previous year.2022 April 25, Kate Conger, “Twitter Employees Search for Answers as Musk Deal Takes Shape”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
2
Dated A merry frolic; especially, a drinking frolic.
Tradition says she spent the last two years of her life in the strange den I have been speaking of, after having indulged herself in one final, triumphant and satisfying spree.1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XXI, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 205:
It would be a long time before he could be like the majority of these men of the road, who roamed until the hunger for drink and for women mastered them, and then went to work with a purpose in mind, and stopped when they had the price of a spree.1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XXII, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC, page 262:
Etymology Unknown. According to Douglas Harper’s Online Etymological Dictionary, “a word of uncertain origin. Perhaps [Barnhart] an alteration of French esprit (“lively wit”) (see esprit). According to Klein, Irish spré seems to be a loan-word from Old Norse sprakr. Watkins proposes a possible origin as an alteration of Scots spreath (“cattle raid”), from Gaelic sprédh, spré (“cattle; wealth”), from Middle Irish preit, preid (“booty”), ultimately from Latin praeda (“plunder, booty”)”.
And I never spreed with the fellows as a student any more than I had enjoyed myself with the lads in the playground.1892, Leonard Merrick, chapter V, in The Man Who Was Good, published 1921: