bru

Forms

brū f (genitive singular brūwe, nominative plural brūwe)^[1] Plural also brūa, brūwa, genitive plural brūwena, brūna, dative plural brūwum.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *brūwō (“eyebrow”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“brow”).^[1] Orel sets the Proto-Germanic noun beside Old Norse brún (“eyebrow”), whose ⟨n⟩ he takes from the plural stem.^[3] Holthausen and Orel compare the same old word for the brow outside Germanic: Ancient Greek ὀφρῦς (ophrûs), Sanskrit भ्रू (bhrū́), Lithuanian bruvìs, Proto-Slavic *bry and Middle Irish brúad, a dual form.^[4][3] Köbler traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰrū- (“brow”) (Pokorny 172).^[5] Bosworth and Toller send the reader on to brǣw (“eyelid”).^[2]

Hogg and Fulk class brū historically as an ō-stem and note that the nominative singular seems not to be recorded.^[6] The late glossaries usually have the plural ⟨brūwa⟩, rarely ⟨brūa⟩, and the dative plural ⟨brūwum⟩: a glide was most likely inserted in hiatus, after which the noun could be taken for a regular noun of the type of stōw.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in Riddle 40 of the Exeter Book, copied in the second half of the tenth century: the speaker says “ne ic breaga ne bruna brucan moste”, “I could make use of neither eyelids nor brows”.^[7][8] Bosworth and Toller read bruna there as the genitive plural of this word.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old English used the word both for the eyebrow and for the eyelashes, and in the glossaries it renders Latin cilium, supercilium and tautones.^[2][9] Sweet and Holthausen give the eyelid as a further sense.^[9][4] The Durham Ritual glosses Latin palpebris meis “my eyelids” with brūum mīnum.^[10] Etymonline holds that “eyebrow” was probably the first meaning.^[11]

The word lived on as Middle English broue, plural broues, brouen, from about 1300, now brow, and by the early fourteenth century it also meant the ridge above the eye.^[11]

Timeline

• s. x² – ne ic breaga ne bruna brucan moste in Riddle 40 of the Exeter Book.^[7][8]
• c. 1300 – Middle English broue “arch of hair over the eye”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. an eyebrow.^[2][1]
2. an eyelash.^[2][1]
3. an eyelid.^[9][4]

Word family

• oferbrū

Descendants

• Middle English browe (→ English brow; English broo; Scots broo)^[1]

Related words

• brǣw

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 128
3. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 60
4. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 36
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. brū
6. ^ a b Hogg, Richard M.; Fulk, R. D. (2011), A Grammar of Old English, vol. 2: Morphology, Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, p. § 3.94
7. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 223
8. ^ a b Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
9. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 51
10. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 107
11. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com