brawl

brawl¹ noisy quarrel, fight

Etymology

The quarrel is first a verb, inherited from Middle English braulen, also brallen,^[2][3][4] of uncertain origin.^{[5][4][3][6][7]} Most dictionaries compare Dutch brallen (“to brag, boast”)^{[5][4][8][9][6]} and Low German brallen,^[8][9][6] and the OED and Barnhart add German brallen (“to shout, roar”) of the German dialects;^[5][4] the OED notes that these are apparently recent words of unknown origin, the Dutch one probably echoic.^[5] Chambers compares prahlen (“to boast”).^[10] Etymonline and Weekley prefer French brailler (“to shout noisily”), a frequentative of braire (“to bray”);^[11][12] the OED replies that the French verb comes near in sense but could not give the English form, and that Old Norse bralla (“to trick”) does not suit the sense.^[5] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English think it perhaps ultimately imitative and related to bray, comparing Old Occitan braulhar;^[6][13][14] Hoad also suggests an imitative origin.^[7] The noun is inherited from Middle English braul, from the verb.^{[2][4][5][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

To raise a clamour, talk loudly, or shout at an animal: about 1390, in a poem of the Vernon manuscript, where a driver shouts at his ox.^[2] Barnhart dates the Scots form brallen to 1375, in John Barbour's The Bruce,^[4] and the OED's earliest example is the reflexive "to boast oneself loudly", before 1400, in the alliterative Morte Arthure.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense "to quarrel, wrangle" is recorded from the early 15th century;^[11][2] the OED's first example is from the Promptorium Parvulorum of about 1440, and it defines the sense with Johnson's words "to quarrel noisily and indecently".^[5][15] In the 15th century the verb could also mean to brag or boast;^[2][5] between 1474 and 1649 it was used transitively for "to scold, revile".^[5] Shakespeare used it of a stream noisily running over stones, as in As You Like It, and of driving someone out by brawling, in King John.^[5] The noun meant a noisy disturbance from the mid-15th century;^[11][2] the OED's earliest "rough or noisy fight" is from the Towneley Plays, before 1500,^[5] and Etymonline dates the sense "fist-fight" to 1873.^[11] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "quarrel; noise; scurrility".^[15] In 20th-century slang a brawl is also a noisy party, from 1924 in Green's Dictionary of Slang.^[16][8][17]

Timeline

• 1375 – Scots brallen, in Barbour's The Bruce, according to Barnhart.^[4]
• c. 1390 – to raise a clamour, shout.^[2]
• before 1400 – reflexive, to boast oneself loudly (obsolete).^[5]
• c. 1440 – to quarrel noisily, wrangle.^[5]
• c. 1445 – noun, a disturbance.^[2][4]
• 1474 – transitive, to scold, revile (obsolete by 1649).^[5]
• before 1500 – noun, a rough or noisy fight.^[5]
• 1581 – noun, a noisy clamour (obsolete by 1611).^[5]
• 1623 – of a stream, to make a noise over stones, in Shakespeare.^[5]
• 1873 – a fist-fight.^[11]
• 1924 – slang, a riotous party.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rough, noisy fight, especially one in a public place among several people: a brawl outside the stadium.^{[18][8][17][5]}
2. A loud, angry quarrel.^[18][8][17]
3. (slang, chiefly US) A noisy party.^{[18][8][17][16]}
4. (obsolete, 1581–1611) A noisy cry or outcry.^[5][6]

Verb

1. To quarrel or fight noisily: Two fans brawled in the car park.^{[18][8][17][5]}
2. Of water, to flow noisily: a brawling stream.^[18][8][5]
3. To make a loud noise or complain loudly; to raise a clamour.^[8][5][6]

Word family

• brawler
• brawling
• brawly
• outbrawl

brawl² dance

Etymology

The dance is borrowed from French branle,^{[6][12][5][10]} from branler (“to shake, totter”), which Weekley takes as standing for Old French brandeler, a frequentative of brandir, the source of brandish.^[12] The OED gives the English word either this French source or a derivation from an obsolete English verb of the same spelling meaning "to move to and fro" (1489–1500), itself possibly from the French verb, and compares brangle;^[5] Weekley notes that the dance was also called a brangle.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

A particular pace or movement in dancing: 1521, in Robert Copland's contribution to Alexander Barclay's introduction to French.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

From about 1542, in Wyatt, it was the name of a French dance resembling the cotillion,^[5][6] in which, in Cotgrave's words, "many ... move altogether";^[12] Shakespeare plays on the word in Love's Labour's Lost, and Marston describes the figure in The Malcontent.^[19] About 1604 it also meant the music for the dance,^[5][6] and figuratively, before 1649, the lead in an undertaking, after French phrases meaning "to lead the dance".^[5] The OED's last example is from 1842.^[5]

Timeline

• 1521 – a pace or movement in dancing (obsolete by 1531).^[5]
• before 1542 – a French dance like a cotillion, in Wyatt.^[5]
• c. 1604 – the music of this dance.^[5]
• 1842 – the last record of the dance name.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1542–1842) A French dance like the cotillion, danced in a ring or a line; also the music for it.^[5][6][19]
2. (obsolete, 1521–1531) A pace or movement in dancing.^[5][6]