ŝpruci

A word that sounds like what it does. Ŝpruci is water leaving somewhere under pressure: a spring, a burst pipe, an artery, a wave hitting a hull. The opening cluster ŝpr- is unusual in Esperanto and it is not an accident, because the German spritzen behind it is half a noise word to begin with. Say it and the meaning is already half delivered.

It sits next to the sound words. Esperanto has a small set of roots the dictionary tags sonimito, sound imitations, and the one for water is plaŭd: plaŭdi is to splash, a plaŭdo is the splash you hear. The two are close but not the same. Plaŭdi is about the sound the water makes striking something; ŝpruci is about the water leaving under force, whether or not anybody hears it. The whole sound-word system, and the trick where any noise plus -i becomes a verb, is set out in interjections and onomatopoeia.

Intransitive, and it has a partner. The water ŝprucas by itself; you do not ŝpruci the water. To make something spurt you add -ig-: ŝprucigi is to squirt, and a ŝprucigilo is the thing that does it, a sprayer or a sprinkler. Ŝpruco is the spurt itself, one jet of it, and ŝprucaĵo the stuff that came out. Beside it, verŝi is to pour, which is gravity and patience, and a guto is a single drop, which is the opposite of pressure entirely.