英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

brahmin (n.)[brahmin 词源字典]: "member of Boston's upper class," 1823, figurative use of Brahman "member of the highest priestly Hindu caste," late 15c., from Sanskrit brahmana-s, from brahman- "prayer," also "the universal soul, the Absolute," which is of uncertain origin. Related to Brahma.[brahmin etymology, brahmin origin, 英语词源]
braid (v.): "to plait, knit, weave, twist together," c. 1200, breidan, from Old English bregdan "to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (in wrestling), draw (a sword); bend, weave, knit, join together; change color, vary; scheme, feign, pretend" (class III strong verb, past tense brægd, past participle brogden), from Proto-Germanic *bregthan "make sudden jerky movements from side to side" (compare Old Norse bregða "to brandish, turn about, braid;" Old Saxon bregdan "to weave;" Dutch breien "to knit;" Old High German brettan "to draw, weave, braid"), from PIE root *bherek- "to gleam, flash" (compare Sanskrit bhrasate "flames, blazes, shines"). In English the verb survives only in the narrow definition of "plait hair." Related: Braided; braiding.
braid (n.): in part from stem found in Old English gebrægd "craft, fraud," gebregd "commotion," Old Norse bragð "deed, trick," and in part from or influenced by related braid (v.). Earliest senses are "a deceit, stratagem, trick" (c. 1200), "sudden or quick movement" (c. 1300); meaning "anything plaited or entwined" (especially hair) is from 1520s.
braids (n.): 1520s; see braid (n.).
brail (n.): small rope used on ships, mid-15c., from Old French brail, earlier braiel "belt, leather thong," from Latin bracale "waistbelt," from bracæ "breeches" (plural, see breeches).
Braille: 1853, from Louis Braille (1809-1852), French musician and teacher, blind from age 3, who devised it c. 1830.
brain (v.): "to dash the brains out," late 14c., from brain (n.). Related: Brained; braining.
brain (n.): Old English brægen "brain," from Proto-Germanic *bragnam (cognates: Middle Low German bregen, Old Frisian and Dutch brein), from PIE root *mregh-m(n)o- "skull, brain" (cognates: Greek brekhmos "front part of the skull, top of the head"). But Liberman writes that brain "has no established cognates outside West Germanic ..." and is not connected to the Greek word. More probably, he writes, its etymon is PIE *bhragno "something broken."

The custom of using the plural to refer to the substance (literal or figurative), as opposed to the organ, dates from 16c. Figurative sense of "intellectual power" is from late 14c.; meaning "a clever person" is first recorded 1914. Brain teaser is from 1923. Brain stem first recorded 1879, from German. Brain drain is attested from 1963. An Old English word for "head" was brægnloca, which might be translated as "brain locker." In Middle English, brainsick (Old English brægenseoc) meant "mad, addled."
brain trust (n.): occasionally used since early 1900s, it became current in 1933, in reference to the intellectuals gathered by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as advisors; from brain (n.) + trust (n.).
brain-child (n.): "idea, creation of one's own," 1881, from brain (n.) + child. Earlier was the more alliterative brain-brat (1630).
brain-dead (adj.): 1976, popularized in U.S. by the Karen Anne Quinlan case (brain death is from 1968).
brainiac (n.): "very smart person," 1982, U.S. slang, from brain (n.) + ending from ENIAC, etc. Brainiac also was the name of a comic book villain in the Superman series and a do-it-yourself computer building kit, both from the late 1950s, and the word may bear traces of either or both of these.
brainstorm (n.): "brilliant idea, mental excitement, fit of mental application," 1849, from brain (n.) + figurative use of storm (n.). As a verb, recorded from 1920s. Related: Brainstormed; brainstorming.
brainwash (v.): 1955 (past participle adjective brainwashed attested from 1953); see brainwashing.
brainwashing (n.): 1950, a literal translation of Chinese xi nao. A term from the Korean War.
brainy (adj.): 1845, from brain (n.) + -y (2). Latin equivalent cerebrosus meant "passionate, hot-headed," leading Tucker to remark that " 'Brainy' is not a natural expression for 'frantic.' "
braise (v.): 1797, from French braiser "to stew" (17c.), from braise "live coals," from Old French brese "embers" (12c.), ultimately from West Germanic *brasa (as is Italian bragia, Spanish brasa), from PIE *bhre- "burn, heat" (see brawn). Related: Braised; braising.
brake (n.1): mid-15c., "instrument for crushing or pounding," from Middle Dutch braeke "flax brake," from breken "to break" (see break (v.)). The word was applied to many crushing implements and to the ring through the nose of a draught ox. It was influenced in sense by Old French brac, a form of bras "an arm," thus "a lever or handle," which was being used in English from late 14c., and applied to "a bridle or curb" from early 15c. One or the other or both took up the main modern meaning of "stopping device for a wheel," first attested 1772.
brake (n.2): kind of fern, early 14c.; see bracken.
brake (v.): "to apply a brake to a wheel," 1868, from brake (n.1). Earlier, "to beat flax" (late 14c.). Related: Braked; braking.