Etymologically
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brake

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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

Modern meaning

Noun

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

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