Etymologically
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brain

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /breɪn/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English brain,[2] inherited from Old English bræġen (“brain”),[3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *bragn,[3][5] a word of uncertain origin:[3] it is found in Old Frisian brein, Middle Low German bregen and Dutch brein,[4][3][5] but not in Scandinavian or Gothic.[4] Many dictionaries relate it to Greek brekhmós, bréchma “front part of the head”, from Proto-Indo-European *mregh- (“skull, brain”),[3][4][2] but Liberman holds that brain has no established cognates outside West Germanic and is hardly related to the Greek word.[6][3] He proposes instead a PIE *bhragno “something broken”, the source of Irish bran “chaff, bran”, so that Old English brægen would first have meant “refuse”, much like the modern phrase gray matter.[6] The verb is from the noun.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English brægen, “the brain”, is recorded about 1000;[4][7] Middle English brain is from probably before 1200, in Layamon.[4]

Semantic evolution

The brain as the organ of thought, memory and imagination is from about 1230,[7] and figurative “intellectual power” from the late 14th century.[3][7] The plural, for the substance rather than the organ, literal or figurative, dates from the 16th century.[3] The verb, “to dash the brains out”, is from 1382, in the Wycliffe Bible.[4][7] An electronic device performing operations like those of the brain is from 1934.[7] A clever person is a brain by 1914,[3][7] and brainy, “clever”, from 1845.[4] To have something on the brain is from 1862.[3] Brainwashing is from 1950, in American English, possibly a translation of Chinese xǐ nǎo “wash brain”.[4] An Old English word for the head was brægnloca, literally “brain-locker”.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1000 – Old English brægen.[4][7]
  • c. 1230 – the organ of thought.[7]
  • 1382 – verb, to dash the brains out.[4][7]
  • late 14th century – intellectual power.[3]
  • 16th century – brains, the substance.[3]
  • 1845 – brainy.[4]
  • 1914 – a clever person.[3][7]
  • 1950 – brainwashing.[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The organ inside the skull that controls the body and is the centre of thought, memory and feeling.
  2. Intellectual power; intelligence: use your brain.
  3. (informal) A very clever person.
  4. (informal) the brains: The person who plans an operation.
  5. brains: The brain of an animal used as food.

Verb

  1. To kill by smashing the skull; to hit hard on the head.

Word family

  • brainlike
  • brainy
  • brainstorm
  • brainwash
  • brainchild
  • harebrained
  • scatterbrained

Usage notes

A separate Middle English adjective brain, “furious, mad”, is from about 1340.[7]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b Liberman, Anatoly (2008), An Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology: An Introduction, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press