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brawl

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /bɹɔːl/[1]

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]

Usage notes

According to Hendrickson, some etymologists have thought that the old dance gave the slang brawl, a party, while others derive the slang from the noisy quarrel.[20]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ a b The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers
  11. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  12. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  15. ^ 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.
  16. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  17. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  18. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  19. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W.; Mayhew, A. L. (1914), A Glossary of Tudor and Stuart Words, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  20. ^ Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File