broc

broc¹ brook

Pronunciation

• /broːk/^[1]

Forms

brōc m (strong a-stem; genitive singular brōces, nominative plural brōcas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the brook is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *brōk.^[1] Its West Germanic relatives mean marshy land: Middle Low German brōk (“wet pasture”), Dutch broek (“marsh”) and Old High German bruoh (“swamp”).^[2][3]

Holthausen calls its origin unknown.^[3] Kroonen reconstructs Proto-Germanic *brōka- (“swamp”) and explains it as a lengthened-grade derivative of Proto-Germanic *brakka- (“brackish”), whose double consonant was shortened after the long vowel.^[2] Orel instead puts it with the verb Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).^[4] Wiktionary mentions Kroonen's view and a further link with Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“sea, lake, wetland”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The bounds of a charter of King Æthelwulf of Wessex dated 846 run along a brook several times: Ðonne up on broc oð heottes dic “then up along the brook to the hart's ditch”, and of dune on broc oð sæ “down along the brook to the sea”.^[5][6] The charter survives on a single sheet of the mid-ninth century, held to be contemporary by some scholars and doubtful by others.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller translate it “brook” and “torrent”, and the glossaries set it beside burna for Latin “latex” and “torrens”.^[7] The Old English Boethius describes a brook turned from its course by a great stone rolling down from a mountain.^[8][6] It is common in charter bounds, where Middendorff notes that it can also mean the low meadow along a stream, as dialectal English brook means a water-meadow in Kent and Sussex.^[9][10]

It lived on as Middle English brook, now English brook.^[11][10]

Timeline

• 846 – up on broc in the bounds of King Æthelwulf's charter for South Hams, Devon.^[5][6]
• s. x med. – se broc in the Old English Boethius.^[8][7][6]
• ?a1160 – usque ad broc in a Middle English document.^[11]
• c1275 – i þan broke in Laȝamon's Brut.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. a brook, stream; a torrent.^[7][12]
2. (charters) low ground along a stream, a water-meadow.^[9]

Descendants

• Middle English brook (→ English brook; Scots broke; Scots bruke)^[1]

broc² leg covering

Pronunciation

• /broːk/^[1]

Forms

brōc f (strong consonant stem; genitive singular brēċ, nominative plural brēċ)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the leg covering is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *brōk, from Proto-Germanic *brōks.^[1] It is a feminine root noun, with the umlauted plural brēċ.^[13][1] Its cognates are Old Norse brók (“leg of a pair of breeches”), Old Frisian brēk (“pants”), Dutch broek and Old High German bruoh.^[2][14]

Kroonen calls the etymology disputed: if the first meaning was “buttocks”, the place where the legs part, the word can be an intensive with the o-grade of Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), and can be compared with Latin suffrāgō (“hock”).^[2] Etymonline also mentions Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”).^[10] Both Kroonen and Orel leave open its relation to the Gaulish word behind Latin brācae (“breeches”): the Germanic word may be the source of the Gaulish one or a loan from it.^[2][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bosworth and Toller quote it in the sense “breech, buttocks” from Bald's Leechbook: under ða brec “under the breech”.^[7] The Leechbook's manuscript, Royal 12 D. xvii, was written in the mid-tenth century.^[15] The plural brēc glosses Latin “femoralia” in the Benedictine Rule and the glossaries.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the singular it is the breech or buttocks; in the plural it is the garment that covers them, breeches or trousers.^[7][16] Kroonen gives the Proto-Germanic noun the meanings “loin-cloth, breeches”.^[2] The compounds brēchrægl and wǣdbrēc are formed from it.^[7]

The plural gave Middle English brech, “underpants, drawers”.^[11] Campbell explains English breeches beside Scots breeks from the doublet brōc – brēc.^[17] Etymonline calls breeches a double plural; the singular breech has meant the back part of a gun since the 1570s.^[10]

Timeline

• s. x med. – under ða brec “under the breech” in Bald's Leechbook.^[7][15]
• c1275 – in ure bare brechen in Laȝamon's Brut.^[11]
• 1570s – English breech for the back part of a gun.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. the breech, buttocks.^[7][12]
2. (chiefly plural) breeches, trousers; underpants.^[7][16][1]

Word family

• brēchrægl
• wǣdbrēc

Descendants

• Middle English brek (→ English breech; English breeches; English britches)^[1]

broc³ affliction

Pronunciation

• /broːk/^[1]

Forms

broc, brōc n (strong a-stem; genitive singular brōces, nominative plural brōcu)^[7][1]

Etymology

The word for affliction is most likely a back-formation from Old English brocian (“to crush, injure”), according to Bammesberger.^[18] Holthausen put it in one article with the word for “fragment”, which he connected with brecan (“to break”) and the same verb.^[3] Bammesberger, following Grinda, doubts that the two are one word: “fragment” fits a direct derivative of the verbal root, the senses “misery, trouble” do not.^[18] He also notes that Middle Irish brocc (“grief”) cannot help, as it is a loan from Old English.^[18] Köbler gives it an entry of its own but refers its etymology to the word for “fragment”, which he takes from Proto-Germanic *brukō.^[19][20]

Holthausen and Köbler write it with a short vowel;^[3]^(Köbler AE|s.v. broc 2 Bosworth–Toller, Hogg and Wiktionary mark the vowel long.^{[3][19][7][21][1]}

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in King Alfred's Pastoral Care, in the Hatton manuscript of 890×897: Ac ðeah hine ðonne ða brocu getyn & gelæren “but though the afflictions then train and teach him”.^[22][6] Bosworth and Toller quote other passages of the same text.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller explain it as whatever breaks violently upon body or mind, hence affliction, misery, trouble, toil and disease.^[7] The Old English Boethius says that God will lay no unbearable broc on men, and Ælfric's Catholic Homilies use it for a long illness.^[7] Clark Hall adds the senses “fragment” and “breach” from the Gospels.^[12]

Middle English brok kept the senses “disease, sore, boil” into the fifteenth century.^[11]

Timeline

• 890×897 – ða brocu “the afflictions” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[22][6]
• s. x med. – mid heardum broce “with hard affliction” in the Old English Boethius.^[7][8]
• ?a1200 – broces “sores” in a medical text of Harley MS 6258B.^[11]
• ?c1450 – brokes and boches “sores and boils” in a medical recipe.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. affliction, misery, trouble, adversity.^[7][19]
2. toil, labour.^[7][1]
3. disease, sickness.^[7][12]

Word family

• ġebroc

Descendants

• Middle English brok^[11]