spread: [OE] Spread is a general West Germanic word, with relatives in German spreiten and Dutch speiden. These point back to a common prehistoric ancestor *spraidjan. Where that came from is not clear, although it may have links with Latin spargere ‘scatter, sprinkle’ (source of English aspersion [16] and sparse [18]) and Greek speírein ‘sow’ (a relative of English sperm, spore, etc).
