bravery

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Middle French braverie (“the action of braving”),^[2][3][4] from braver (“to brave”), or else from Italian braveria, from bravare.^[2][4][5][6] Both go back to the adjective brave, from Italian bravo (“brave, bold”), whose origin is uncertain.^[4] The Oxford Dictionary of English traces the root to Latin barbarus,^[5] a derivation Etymonline considers less likely than one from prāvus (“crooked, depraved”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The action of braving; daring, defiance, boasting, bravado: 1548, in W. Patten's Expedicion into Scotlande.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was disapproving: a show of defiance or swagger.^[4][2] Courage as a good quality appears in Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie (before 1586), though the OED notes that the early quotations cannot always be told apart from bravado;^[2][4] it is now the ordinary sense.^[2] A parallel line of meaning, display and splendour (1573) and fine clothes (1563), kept the older idea of showy pretence.^[2][4] In the 17th century a bravery could also be a gallant or beau (1616–70).^[2] Johnson (1755) listed "courage; magnanimity; generosity; gallantry" first, but also gave "splendour; magnificence" and "bravado; boast".^[7] The sense of bravado went out of use early in the 19th century.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1548 – daring, defiance, boasting (obsolete by 1814).^[2][3]
• 1563 – finery, fine clothes.^[2]
• 1573 – display, splendour.^[2]
• before 1586 – courage as a good quality.^[2]
• 1616 – a gallant, a beau (obsolete by 1670).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Courage or valour; the quality of being brave: the bravery of the lifeboat crew.^[3][2][7]
2. Finery; fine or showy clothes.^[3][2][8]
3. Showy display or splendour.^[3][2][8]
4. (archaic) An act of defiance or bravado (obsolete in the OED, 1548–1814).^[3][2][8]

Word family

• overbravery

Related words

• bravado
• brave
• bravo
• bravura

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press