brachial

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Latin brāchiālis (“of or belonging to the arm”),^[2][3][4][5] also spelled bracchiālis,^[6][7] from brāchium (“arm”), also bracchium,^[2][6][7][8] with the suffix -ālis.^[6] The American Heritage Dictionary and Etymonline take the Latin noun from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn, “upper arm”).^[7][3] Etymonline explains this Greek word as literally "shorter", the upper arm being shorter than the forearm, from βραχύς (brakhús, “short”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregh-u- (“short”).^[3] The OED compares French brachial.^[2] The Middle English noun for an arm vestment is inherited from Middle English brachial, borrowed from Latin bracchiale,^[9] and the modern noun is a conversion of the adjective.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ecclesiastical vestment for the forearm, as a noun: the Middle English Dictionary quotes Brachyals from the records of St Mary at Hill of 1408–17.^[9] The adjective, belonging to the arm, is first quoted in 1578, in J. Banister's Historie of Man,^[2][6] and Etymonline and Dictionary.com put it in the 1570s.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The Shorter Oxford records the old noun for a vestment or a piece of armour for the arm until the mid 16th century.^[10] The adjective was chiefly a term of physiology from the start, in phrases such as brachial artery, brachial vein and brachial nerve;^[2] Johnson (1755) gave only "belonging to the arm".^[11] In the 19th century zoologists extended it to anything like an arm, from 1835,^[2] and a new noun arose by shortening such phrases.^[2][10] Zoologists also made this noun a name for bones in fishes and for plates in the arms of crinoids.^[2]

Timeline

• 1408–17 – noun, a vestment for the forearm.^[9]
• 1578 – adjective, belonging to the arm.^[2][6]
• 1754 – noun, a brachial part such as a scale or plate.^[6]
• 1835 – adjective, in zoology, resembling an arm.^[2]
• 1859 – noun, a brachial artery or vein.^[2]
• 1873 – noun, one of the bones in fishes that carry the pectoral fins.^[2]
• 1888 – noun, one of the plates in the branches of a crinoid.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to the arm: The nurse took the pressure in his brachial artery.^[12][6][2]
2. (zoology) Of or like an armlike part or process, or resembling an arm.^[12][6][2]

Noun

1. A brachial artery, vein or similar part of the arm.^[2][10]
2. (zoology) A brachial part, such as a scale or plate; one of the bones in fishes that carry the pectoral fins, or one of the plates of a crinoid.^[6][2]
3. (obsolete) A vestment for the forearm, or in the Shorter Oxford also a piece of armour for the arm.^[9][10]

Word family

• postbrachial
• prebrachial
• brachialgia
• interbrachial
• brachial plexus

Related words

• brachium
• brachialis
• brace
• embrace
• brief

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins