brake

Brake, a device for stopping motion, is of uncertain origin; brake, a thicket, is from Middle Low German; brake, a fern, is probably a variant of bracken.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /breɪk/^[4]

brake¹ stopping device

Etymology

It is possibly an extended sense of earlier brake, a bridle or curb (1552),^[1][5] which is borrowed from Middle Dutch braeke or Middle Low German brake, a nose ring for draught animals, also a toothed machine for breaking flax,^[1][2] related to breken (“to break”) (see break).^[1][2][6] It may instead come from brake, a lever or handle for working a crossbow (about 1380) or a pump, from Old French brac, a form of bras (“arm”) (see brace);^[1][2] Etymonline thinks the senses converged.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A device for slowing or stopping the motion of a wheel: 1772–82, well before the motor car.^[1][2][5]

Semantic evolution

A toothed instrument for breaking flax or hemp is from about 1450,^[7][2] and a baker's kneading machine from about 1440.^[7] The verb, to apply a brake, is from 1868;^[2] earlier, to beat flax (late 14th century).^[2] Figuratively, a brake is anything that slows progress (to put the brakes on).^[5][8]

Timeline

• c. 1380 – a lever, handle.^[1]
• c. 1450 – a flax brake.^[7]
• 1552 – a bridle, curb.^[1]
• 1772–82 – a brake on a wheel.^[1]
• 1868 – to brake (verb).^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A device for slowing or stopping a vehicle or machine, usually by friction.
2. Something that slows or stops progress.
3. A toothed tool for crushing flax or hemp.

Verb

1. To slow or stop with a brake.

Word family

• brake fluid
• brake light
• handbrake

brake² thicket

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle Low German brake,^[1][6] related to breken (“to break”), and originally meaning tree stumps or broken branches.^[1][3] Hoad derives it from Old English bracu, reinforced in Middle English from Low German.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A clump of bushes or a thicket: about 1440, in the compound ferne-brake in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[1][7]

Semantic evolution

A thicket of ferns is probably from about 1450.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1440 – ferne-brake.^[1]
• c. 1450 – a thicket of ferns.^[1]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An area of dense undergrowth, brushwood or briers; a thicket.

brake³ fern

Etymology

It is probably a variant of bracken, which may have been taken in dialect as a plural and shortened, as chick from chicken.^[1][3][2] Merriam-Webster thinks it probably of Scandinavian origin, compare Old Swedish brækne (“fern”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fern, bracken: before 1325 in Barnhart, about 1325 in the OED, the early 14th century in Etymonline.^[1][7][2]

Semantic evolution

In botany, brake is any of various ferns of the genus Pteris.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1325 – bracken.^[1][7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Bracken, or any of various ferns of the genus Pteris.

Related words

• break
• bracken

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins