Etymologically
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bravo

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:50. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Merriam-Webster and the OED give the hired ruffian and the cry of approval separate entries;[1][2] both come from the same Italian adjective, borrowed at different times.[3][4]

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbɹɑːvəʊ/, /bɹɑːˈvəʊ/[5]
  • US: /ˈbɹɑvoʊ/, /bɹɑˈvoʊ/[5]

bravo1 hired ruffian

Etymology

The hired ruffian is borrowed from Italian bravo (“a bold man; a ruffian”), a noun use of bravo (“bold, wild”),[1][3][6][2] the Italian adjective behind brave.[2][7][8] Klein derives the Italian word from Latin barbarus.[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

A hired killer or bully, a reckless desperado: 1586, in George Whetstone's Mirrour for Magestrates of Citties, which speaks of the bravoes of Rome and Naples.[10] The OED's first quotation is from Samuel Daniel's Civil Wars (1609 edition), which Barnhart dates to 1597;[2][11][10] Etymonline gives the 1590s and Merriam-Webster 1600.[7][1]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) defined a bravo as a man who murders for hire,[12][2] and Weekley remarked that Italian called a cowardly assassin a "brave man".[4] In the early 17th century the word was also used for bravado, a sense obsolete after 1742.[2][3] The word is now chiefly historical or literary.[2][1]

Timeline

  • 1586 – a hired killer or desperado.[10]
  • 1616 – (obsolete) bravado.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A hired assassin or thug; a desperado.

bravo2 well done

Etymology

The cry of approval is borrowed from Italian bravo (“fine, splendid, well done”),[2][11][1][4] the same adjective as the noun meaning a ruffian,[3][9] whose superlative is bravissimo.[2][7] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it through bravo,[3][6] and Barnhart thinks the existing English noun may have influenced it.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Excellent! well done!: 1761, in George Colman's comedy The Jealous Wife.[2][11][7]

Semantic evolution

The interjection was used in applauding actors and singers;[9] in Italian the feminine brava is said to a woman and the plural bravi to several performers, and some English writers have followed this use.[9][7][1] As a noun, a shout of bravo, it is recorded in 1806 in Merriam-Webster and in 1844 in the OED,[1][2] and as a verb, to greet with cries of bravo, from 1831.[2] Since the early 1950s Bravo has been the code word for the letter B in radio communication,[1][2] and in military use the name of the second unit of a group (1958).[2]

Timeline

  • 1761 – interjection, well done![2][11]
  • 1806 – noun, a shout of approval.[1]
  • 1831 – verb, to applaud with cries of bravo.[2]
  • 1953 – Bravo, code word for B.[2]

Modern meaning

Interjection

  1. Well done! Used to applaud a performer or praise an achievement.

Noun

  1. A cry of bravo; a cheer: The tenor left the stage to loud bravos.
  2. Bravo: a code word for the letter B in radio communication.

Verb

  1. To greet or applaud with cries of bravo.

Word family

  • bravissimo

Usage notes

The Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary notes that the word is always stressed on the first syllable when used for the letter B in the international spelling alphabet.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  5. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  11. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press