- sprawl (v.)
- Old English spreawlian "move convulsively," with cognates in the Scandinavian languages and North Frisian spraweli, probably ultimately from PIE root *sper- "to strew" (see sprout). Meaning "to spread or stretch in a careless manner" is attested from 1540s; of things, from 1745. Related: Sprawled; sprawling.
- sprawl (n.)
- 1719, from sprawl (v.); meaning "straggling expansion of built-up districts into surrounding countryside" is from 1955.