Sprinkle comes from Middle English sprenkelen, a frequentative probably from Middle Dutch sprenkel ('spot, speckle') or related Germanic forms. The historical chain includes Middle Dutch sprenkel. The quoted older sense, "spot, speckle," supplies the immediate semantic anchor for sprinkle. The formation is best read as borrowed: the word sprinkle carries its older form-history into a compact English lexical shape. In present English it is used as a verb, "to scatter small drops or particles over a surface". English derivatives include sprinkler and sprinkling. The result is a verb and noun whose etymology preserves both the older form and the later English specialization.