Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a child; thus as v., to have a child; also attrib.

[1943		(ref. to early 1930s) C.H. Ward-Jackson It’s a Piece of Cake 56: sprog. Any airman who is u/t—-i.e., under training. This common expression had the following origin: At a technical training school in the early 1930’s, a trade test was set in which one of the questions was, ‘State a name for a toothed wheel.’ One poor wretch answered ‘Sprog,’ confusing a sprocket and a cog. Subsequently airmen undergoing the course came to be known by that word, since when its use has spread wherever R.A.F. personnel are stationed.].
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 23: Freddy Purcell was goin’ on about ’ow ’is wife ’ad just ’ad a sprog. [Ibid.] 140: Sprog, sprogster ... child, baby.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxix 4/5: sprong: [sic] A small baby. To sprog, to have a baby.
1970		Galton & Simpson ‘Cuckoo in the Nest’ Steptoe and Son [TV script] I’m not going to stand by and see everything I’ve worked for handed out on a plate to one of your illegitimate sprogs.
1981		J. Sullivan ‘The Russians are Coming’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] What, and they accepted the little sprogs?
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 113: She’s really ducky, with another sprog on the way.
1993		K. Lette Foetal Attraction (1994) 160: Come on, Gill. You must want to sprog one day?
1999		People (Sydney) 5 July 65/3: The holy humper - who’s got six sprogs - also reckons it’s A-OK for chicks to get down on their knees and pray before the bald-headed god of love.
1999		Guardian Guide 31 July–6 Aug. 81: Parents dreading their sproglet’s anniversary are advised to watch very carefully.
1999		Indep. The Information 17–23 July 33: Mom playing tug of love over her sprogs.
2003		N. Griffiths Stump 9: Take them wheels over them snot-snosed sprogs any fuckin day. Too right.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] Seems like everybody’s popping out sprogs these days.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 143: Yon octopus that used tae be oan the telly when wi wir sprogs.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 50: [H]er lone sprog granted her placement in a house.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare i: I’ve been kicked to the kerb after more than a decade at Network Ten for committing a crime against television: spitting out sprogs.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers 159: As a sprog ah used te watch that Owen, M.D.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 617: Within an hour a furore of peelers led by the young man, a sprog rozzer, had arrived, waving batons.