The Greek verb bryō (βρύω) means to gush forth, pour out, overflow, or teem with something. It appears only once in the New Testament (James 3:11), in a series of rhetorical questions about the impossibility of contradictions in nature: "Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?" The word pictures an overflowing, unstoppable outpouring — whether of fresh water or brackish water.
James uses bryō in his famous passage on the tongue (James 3:1-12). The tongue, he argues, cannot consistently produce both blessing and cursing — just as a spring cannot bryō (pour forth) both fresh and salt water. The impossibility in nature becomes a challenge to Christian integrity: the same mouth that blesses God should not curse people made in God's image (James 3:9-10). The image of an overflowing spring connects to Jesus's promise that those who believe will have rivers of living water flowing from their innermost being (John 7:38) — the Spirit overflowing into life-giving speech and action.