英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

brittle (adj.)[brittle 词源字典]: late 14c., britel, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English adjective *brytel, related to brytan "to crush, pound, to break to pieces," from Proto-Germanic stem *brutila- "brittle," from *breutan "to break up" (cognates: Old Norse brjota "to break," Old High German brodi "fragile"), from PIE *bhreu- "to cut, break up" (see bruise (v.)). With -le, suffix forming adjectives with meaning "liable to."[brittle etymology, brittle origin, 英语词源]
bro (n.): colloquial abbreviation of brother, attested from 1660s.
broach (n.): "pointed instrument," c. 1300, from Old French broche (12c.) "spit for roasting, awl, point end, top," from Vulgar Latin *brocca "pointed tool," noun use of fem. of Latin adjective broccus "projecting, pointed" (used especially of teeth), perhaps of Gaulish origin (compare Gaelic brog "awl").
broach (v.): "pierce," early 14c., from the same source as broach (n.). Meaning "begin to talk about" is 1570s, a figurative use with suggestions of "broaching" a cask or of spurring into action (compare Old French brochier, 12c., "to spur," also "to penetrate sexually"). Related: Broached broaching.
broad (adj.): Old English brad "broad, flat, open, extended," from Proto-Germanic *braithaz (cognates: Old Frisian bred, Old Norse breiðr, Dutch breed, German breit, Gothic brouþs), which is of unknown origin. Not found outside Germanic languages. No clear distinction in sense from wide. Related: Broadly. Broad-brim as a style of hat (1680s, broad-brimmed) in 18c.-19c. suggested "Quaker male" from their characteristic attire.
broad (n.): "woman," slang, 1911, perhaps suggestive of broad (adj.) hips, but it also might trace to American English abroadwife, word for a woman (often a slave) away from her husband. Earliest use of the slang word suggests immorality or coarse, low-class women. Because of this negative association, and the rise of women's athletics, the track and field broad jump was changed to the long jump c. 1967.
broad-minded (adj.): 1590s; see broad (adj.) + minded. This abstract mental sense of broad existed in Old English; for example in bradnes "breadth," also "liberality."
broadband (n.): type of high-speed Internet access widely available from 2006, from broad (adj.) + band (n.1).
broadcast: 1767, adjective, in reference to the spreading of seed, from broad (adj.) + past participle of cast (v.). Figurative use is recorded from 1785. Modern media use began with radio (1922, adjective and noun). As a verb, recorded from 1813 in an agricultural sense, 1829 in a figurative sense, 1921 in reference to radio.
broadcasting (n.): 1922, verbal noun from broadcast (v.).
broaden (v.): 1727, from broad (adj.) + -en (1). The word seems no older than this date (discovered by Johnson in one of James Thomson's "Seasons" poems); broadened also is first found in the same poet, and past participle adjective broadening is recorded from 1850.
broadside (n.): 1590s, "side of a ship" (technically, "the side of a ship above the water, between the bow and the quarter"), from broad (adj.) + side (n.); thus "the artillery on one side of a ship all fired off at once" (1590s, with figurative extensions). Two words until late 18c. Of things other than ships, 1630s. But oldest-recorded sense in English is "sheet of paper printed only on one side" (1570s).
broadsword (n.): Old English brad swurd, from broad (adj.) + sword.
Broadway: common street name, from broad (adj.) + way (n.); the allusive use for "New York theater district" is first recorded 1881.
Brobdingnag: (not *brobdignag), 1727, Swift's name in "Gulliver's Travels" for imaginary country where everything was on a gigantic scale.
brobdingnagian (adj.): "huge, immense, gigantic," 1728, from Brobdingnag + -ian.
brocade (n.): 1560s, from Spanish brocado, from Italian broccato "embossed cloth," originally past participle of broccare "to stud, set with nails," from brocco "small nail," from Latin broccus "projecting, pointed" (see broach (n.)).
brocade (v.): 1650s (implied in brocaded), from brocade (n.). Related: Brocading.
broccoli (n.): 1690s, from Italian broccoli, plural of broccolo "a sprout, cabbage sprout," diminutive of brocco "shoot, protruding tooth, small nail" (see brocade (n.)).
broch (n.): prehistoric stone tower of the Scottish Highland and isles, 1650s, from Scottish broch, from Old Norse borg "castle," cognate with Old English burh (see borough).