sprit
A spar between mast and upper outer corner of a spritsail on sailing boats.
... and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits.
A shoot; a sprout.
the Maltſter will ſtir his Barley Couches till the Sprit begins to fork , five or ſix times a day or more ; it being always his Care to keep them from drying too much on the outſides
Where it comes from
From Middle English sprete, from Old English sprēot (“pole, pike, spear”), from Proto-Germanic *spreut, related to Proto-West Germanic *sprutō (“shoot, sprout”). Cognate with West Frisian spriet (“sprit, spoke”), Dutch spriet (“a sprit, blade, spar, shoot, sprig”), Middle High German spriez (“sprout, twig”).
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry sprit (CC BY-SA 4.0).