brash

brash¹ blow, attack, bout

Etymology

The word for a blow or an attack is inherited from Middle English brash (“a slap, a crash”), also spelled brassche.^[2][3][4] It is perhaps imitative,^[3][5] and the OED hears in it the sounds of break and crash or dash; it thinks that the senses "sickness" and "burst of rain" may be separate, with other associations such as rash and splash.^[5] Dictionary.com takes it as perhaps a blend of Middle English brok, from Old English broc (“breach, fragment, sickness”), and dasch (“a smashing blow”).^[4] Weekley and Klein take the sense "belching of fluid", as in water brash, as perhaps the same word as brash³, fragments, comparing German brechen, which means both "to break" and "to vomit".^[6][7] The Scottish verb brash, to assault or breach a wall, is from the noun.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A slap or a crash: about 1400, and in the York Plays before 1450.^[2] The Shorter Oxford likewise dates the sense "a crash, a blow" to late Middle English.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Scotland and the north the noun came to mean an attack or assault, or a bout, recorded from 1573 to 1724,^[5][3] and the verb meant to assault or batter, or to breach a wall, from about 1565 to 1638.^[5][3] From a bout of fighting it passed to a bout of illness: a slight attack of sickness, especially of the stomach, as in teething-brash and weaning-brash (1786, in Burns).^[5][3] An eruption of fluid followed: water-brash, the belching up of acid fluid from the stomach (1811), and a sudden burst of rain (1849).^[5][3] Wright's English Dialect Dictionary records a sudden outburst or tumult, or anything done with great show, in Westmorland, West Yorkshire and Somerset, a sudden gust of wind or spell of wet weather in Scotland, and in Galloway a verb meaning to belch acid fluid into the mouth.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – a slap, a crash.^[2][3]
• c. 1565 – verb, to assault, batter; to breach a wall (Scottish, obsolete by 1638).^[5][3]
• 1573 – an attack, an assault; a bout (Scottish and northern, obsolete by 1724).^[5]
• 1786 – a slight attack of illness, especially of the stomach.^[5][3]
• 1811 – water-brash, a belching of acid fluid from the stomach.^[5]
• 1849 – a sudden burst of rain.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dialect) An attack or bout; a burst of activity.^[9][5]
2. (chiefly Scottish) A short, sharp bout of illness.^[9][5][3]
3. Water brash: a rising of acid fluid from the stomach into the mouth; heartburn.^[9][5][3]
4. (chiefly Scottish) A sudden shower of rain.^[9][5][3]

Verb

1. (obsolete, c. 1565–1638) To assault or batter; to breach a wall.^[5][3]

Word family

• water brash

brash² brittle; rash, bold

Etymology

The adjective, first meaning brittle and later rash, is of unknown origin.^[9][10][11] The OED takes the sense "brittle" as perhaps onomatopoeic, influenced by break and rash, and the sense "rash, impetuous" as perhaps connected either with it or with brash¹, an attack.^[5] Barnhart likewise connects it with the older adjective "brittle", in association with break and rash or crash, or with the Scottish noun for an attack, comparing Scottish Gaelic bras (“hasty, impetuous”).^[12] The American Heritage Dictionary calls it possibly imitative, influenced by rash, or from the noun for an attack,^[13] and the Shorter Oxford, the ODE and the Concise Oxford take it as perhaps a form of rash.^[3][14][15] Dictionary.com sees the sense "hasty" as due to confusion with rash,^[4] while Etymonline does not consider the two connected and suggests instead the Scottish noun, French brèche (“fragments”), from a Germanic source such as Old High German brehha (“breach”), from brehhan (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhreg- (“to break”), or German brechen (“to vomit”).^[11] Partridge thought it perhaps a blend of bold or brassy with rash.^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Brittle, of timber: 1566, in T. Drant's Wailyngs of Hieremiah.^[5] Merriam-Webster Unabridged gives the same year for this sense,^[9] and Barnhart notes it was used of timber from 1566.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The sense "hasty, rash, impetuous" appears in 1824, in W. Carr's Horæ Momenta Cravenæ,^[5][12][11] and was at first a dialect word.^[14][3] Wright's English Dialect Dictionary records it in Northumberland, Cumberland, Yorkshire and Lancashire, and also in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; in Berkshire and Wiltshire brash weather was cold and bracing.^[8] In the United States it took on the senses impulsive, assertive and impudent, and also crude or flashy,^[5] and American use added "hard, harsh, rough" (1868) and "active, quick" (1884, in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn).^[5] Hoad dates the sense "raw, showy" to the 20th century.^[10] Etymonline suggests it was perhaps originally American English,^[11] and the Shorter Oxford notes that the sense "brittle" now survives chiefly in the United States.^[3]

Timeline

• 1566 – brittle, chiefly of timber.^[5][9][12]
• 1824 – hasty, rash, impetuous.^[5][12][11]
• 1868 – hard, harsh, rough (United States).^[5]
• 1884 – active, quick (United States).^[5]
• 20th century – raw, showy.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Self-assertive in a loud or rude way; impudent: a brash young salesman.^[13][17]
2. Acting or done in haste without thought for the consequences; rash or foolhardy: a brash decision.^[13][17][9]
3. Loud, showy or garish: brash neon signs.^[13][17]
4. Full of fresh, raw energy; ebullient: a brash, booming city.^[9]
5. Of wood, unusually brittle.^[9][5][3]

Word family

• brashly
• brashness

brash³ rubble, fragments

Etymology

The word for loose fragments is perhaps borrowed from French brèche (“breach; breccia”),^{[5][13][18][6][7]} and the OED and the American Heritage Dictionary compare or derive the French word from Italian breccia, of the same meaning (compare breccia),^[5][13] while Klein and Weekley trace it to Germanic, Old High German brehha (“breach”), from brehhan (“to break”).^[7][6] Merriam-Webster takes it from an obsolete English verb brash, to breach a wall, probably from Middle French breche (“breach”).^[9][19] The Shorter Oxford and the Concise Oxford call it of unknown origin,^[3][15] and the OED adds that it may instead belong with brash², brittle.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Refuse boughs, hedge clippings and twigs: before 1722, in E. Lisle's Observations in Husbandry.^[5] The Shorter Oxford dates the noun to the late 18th century,^[3] and Collins to the 18th century.^[17]

Semantic evolution

Besides hedge clippings, the noun is used for a mass of loose broken rock forming the top layer under the soil in some districts, as in cornbrash, and for fragments of broken ice, hence brash ice.^[5][9][3] Wright's English Dialect Dictionary records it for hedge clippings, small branches and underwood across Ireland and the north and Midlands of England, for short sticks, small stones and rubbish in Somerset, and in the Galloway phrase all to brash, all to pieces.^[8] From the noun, forestry formed a verb, to cut off the lower branches of a tree, recorded from 1950.^[5][3]

Timeline

• before 1722 – hedge clippings, twigs, refuse boughs.^[5]
• 1950 – verb, to remove the lower branches of a tree.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mass of loose fragments or debris, especially broken rock lying just under the soil; rubble.^[9][5][3]
2. Small floating fragments of ice, especially near an ice pack or floe; brash ice.^[9][5][3]
3. Hedge clippings, prunings of trees and twigs.^[9][5][3]

Verb

1. To remove the lower branches of a tree: The foresters brashed the young spruce.^[9][5][3]

Word family

• brash ice
• brashy