英语词源字典 - 在线词源网站

broth (n.)[broth 词源字典]: Old English broþ, from Proto-Germanic *bruthan (cognates: Old High German *brod), from verb root *bhreue- "to heat, boil, bubble; liquid in which something has been boiled" (source also of Old English breowan "to brew;" see brew (v.)). Picked up from Germanic by the Romanic and Celtic languages.

The Irishism broth of a boy, which is in Byron, was "thought to originate from the Irish Broth, passion -- Brotha passionate, spirited ..." [Farmer], and if so is not immediately related.[broth etymology, broth origin, 英语词源]
brothel (n.): "bawdy house," 1590s, shortened from brothel-house, from brothel "prostitute" (late 15c.), earlier "vile, worthless person" of either sex (14c.), from Old English broðen past participle of breoðan "deteriorate, go to ruin," from Proto-Germanic *breuthan "to be broken up," related to *breutan "to break" (see brittle). In 16c. brothel-house was confused with unrelated bordel (see bordello) and the word shifted meaning from a person to a place.
brother (n.): Old English broþor, from Proto-Germanic *brothar (cognates: Old Norse broðir, Danish broder, Old Frisian brother, Dutch broeder, German Bruder, Gothic bróþar), from PIE root *bhrater (cognates: Sanskrit bhrátár-, Old Persian brata, Greek phratér, Latin frater, Old Irish brathir, Welsh brawd, Lithuanian broterelis, Old Prussian brati, Old Church Slavonic bratru, Czech bratr "brother").

A highly stable word across the Indo-European languages. In the few cases where other words provide the sense, it is where the cognate of brother had been applied widely to "member of a fraternity," or where there was need to distinguish "son of the same mother" and "son of the same father." E.g. Greek adelphos, probably originally an adjective with frater and meaning, specifically, "brother of the womb" or "brother by blood;" and Spanish hermano "brother," from Latin germanus "full brother." As a familiar term of address from one man to another, it is attested from 1912 in U.S. slang; the specific use among blacks is recorded from 1973.
Brother Jonathan (n.): sobriquet for "United States," 1816, often connected with Jonathan Trumbull (1740-1809) of Connecticut, called Brother Jonathan by George Washington, who often sought his advice, somehow in reference to 2 Sam i:26.
brother-in-law (n.): c. 1300; also brother in law; see brother. In Arabic, Urdu, Swahili, etc., brother-in-law, when addressed to a male who is not a brother-in-law, is an extreme insult, with implications of "I slept with your sister."
brotherhood (n.): equivalent of Old English broþerrede "fellowship, brotherhood," with ending as in kindred; in early Middle English the word was brotherhede with ending as in maidenhead. The modern word, with -hood, is from 15c. Originally "relationship of a brother," also "friendly companionship." Concrete sense of "an association, a fraternity" is from mid-14c. in the Middle English word (later also "labor union," 1880s). Old English also had broðorscipe "brothership," broðorsibb "kinship of brothers."
Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,
And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
And the Hindus hate the Muslims,
And everybody hates the Jews.

[Tom Lehrer, "National Brotherhood Week" lyrics, 1965]
brotherliness (n.): Old English broðorlichnes; see brotherly + -ness.
brotherly (adj.): Old English broðorlic; see brother + -ly (1).
brougham (n.): 1851, one-horse closed carriage with two or four wheels, for two or four persons, from first Lord Brougham (1778-1868). The family name is from a place in Westmoreland.
brought: past tense and past participle of bring (v.).
brouhaha (n.): 1890, from French brouhaha (1550s), said by Gamillscheg to have been, in medieval theater, "the cry of the devil disguised as clergy." Perhaps from Hebrew barukh habba' "blessed be the one who comes," used on public occasions (as in Psalm 118).
brow (n.): early 14c., browes, brues "brow, forehead, eyebrow," earlier brouwes (c. 1300), bruwen (c. 1200), from Old English bru, probably originally "eyebrow," but extended to "eyelash," then "eyelid" by association of the hair of the eyebrow with the hair of the eyelid, the eyebrows then becoming Old English oferbrua "overbrows" (early Middle English uvere breyhes or briges aboue þe eiges).

The general word for "eyebrow" in Middle English was brew, breowen (c. 1200), from Old English bræw (West Saxon), *brew (Anglian), from Proto-Germanic *bræwi- "blinker, twinkler" (cognates: Old Frisian bre, Old Saxon brawa, Middle Dutch brauwe "eyelid," Old High German brawa"eyebrow," Old Norse bra "eyebrow," Gothic brahw "twinkle, blink," in phrase in brahwa augins "in the twinkling of an eye").

Old English bru is from Proto-Germanic *brus- "eyebrow" (source also of Old Norse brun), from PIE *bhru- "eyebrow" (cognates: Sanskrit bhrus "eyebrow," Greek ophrys, Old Church Slavonic bruvi, Lithuanian bruvis "brow," Old Irish bru "edge"). The -n- in the Old Norse (brun) and German (braune) forms of the word are from a genitive plural inflection.

Words for "eyelid," "eyelash," and "eyebrow" changed about maddeningly in Old and Middle English (and in all the West Germanic languages). By 1530s, brow had been given an extended sense of "forehead," especially with reference to movements and expressions that showed emotion or attitude.
browbeat (v.): "to bully," originally "to bear down with stern or arrogant looks," 1580s, from brow + beat (v.).
[I]t appears from the earliest quotations ... that the brow in question was that of the beater, not of the beaten party; but it is not evident whether the meaning was 'to beat with one's (frowning) brows,' or 'to beat (?lower) one's brows at.' [OED]
Related: Browbeaten; browbeating.
brown (adj.): Old English brun "dark, dusky," developing a definite color sense only 13c., from Proto-Germanic *brunaz (cognates: Old Norse brunn, Danish brun, Old Frisian and Old High German brun, Dutch bruin, German braun), from PIE *bher- (3) "shining, brown" (cognates: Lithuanian beras "brown"), related to *bheros "dark animal" (compare beaver, bear (n.), and Greek phrynos "toad," literally "the brown animal").

The Old English word also had a sense of "brightness, shining," preserved only in burnish. The Germanic word was adopted into Romanic (Middle Latin brunus, Italian and Spanish bruno, French brun). Brown Bess, slang name for old British Army flintlock musket, first recorded 1785.
brown (n.): "brown color," c. 1600, from brown (adj.).
brown (v.): c. 1300, "to become brown," from brown (adj.). From 1560s as "to make brown." Related: Browned; browning.
Brown Shirt (n.): generic term for "Nazi, fascist," especially of the thuggish sort, 1934, originally (1922) in reference to the German Sturmabteilung, Nazi militia founded 1921; they were called Brown Shirts in English because of their uniforms.
brown-bag (v.): "to bring lunch or liquor in a brown paper bag," 1970, from brown (adj.) + bag (n.). Related: Brown-bagging.
brown-nose (v.): also brownnose, 1939, American English colloquial, said to be military slang originally, from brown (adj.) + nose (n.), "from the implication that servility is tantamount to having one's nose in the anus of the person from whom advancement is sought" [Webster, 1961]. Related: Brown-noser, brown-nosing (both 1950).
brownfield (n.): abandoned or disused industrial land, often contaminated to some degree, 1992, American English, from brown (adj.) + field (n.).