Etymologically
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brand

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 19:28. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /brænd/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English brand, brond,[2] inherited from Old English brand (“fire, flame, a piece of burning wood, in poetry a sword”),[3][2] from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (“a burning”),[3][2] the source also of Old Frisian brond, Old High German brant (German Brand “fire”) and Old Norse brandr.[3][4] It is related to burn,[2][4] and Etymonline derives it from Proto-Indo-European *gwher- (“to heat, warm”).[3] The verb is from the noun.[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of burning wood, a firebrand, and in poetry a sword, from its glint: about 725, in Beowulf.[2] The OED's first example of the burning wood is from about 950.[5]

Semantic evolution

The form brond was not fully replaced by brand until the 1500s.[2] The mark burned with a hot iron is from 1552,[5][2] and the verb, “to burn with a hot iron”, from about 1400,[5][3] at first of criminals and cauterized wounds, so that the figurative sense “to stigmatize” followed in the mid-15th century.[3] Marking a cask or goods to show the maker or quality, with the verb from the 1580s,[3] led to the sense “trademark” by 1827 and to “a particular make of goods” by 1854.[2][3] Brand name is from 1889 and brand loyalty from 1961.[3] Brand-new, like Shakespeare's fire-new, compares something new to metal fresh from the fire.[6] Old French brant and Italian brando, “sword”, and the verb brandish come from the Germanic word.[3] In East Anglian and Devon dialect brand was the smut in corn.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 725 – a firebrand; a sword.[2]
  • c. 1400 – verb, to burn with a hot iron.[5][3]
  • mid-15th century – verb, to stigmatize.[3]
  • 1552 – a mark made by a hot iron.[5][2]
  • 1580s – verb, to mark ownership.[3]
  • 1827 – a trademark.[2]
  • 1828 – a branding iron.[3]
  • 1854 – a make of goods.[2][3]
  • 1889 – brand name.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A trademark or name that identifies a product or its maker; a product line so named.
  2. A particular kind or sort: her own brand of humour.
  3. A mark of ownership burned on an animal's hide with a hot iron.
  4. A mark of disgrace; a stigma.
  5. A piece of burning or charred wood.
  6. (literary) A sword.

Verb

  1. To mark with a hot iron.
  2. To mark as disgraceful; to stigmatize.
  3. To fix firmly in the mind.
  4. To give a brand name to a product.

Word family

  • brander
  • brandless
  • brandling
  • nonbrand
  • branding
  • brand-name
  • brand-new
  • rebrand

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 c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)