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bray

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Pronunciation

bray1 to make the cry of a donkey

Etymology

The verb meaning to cry out is inherited from Middle English braien,[2] borrowed from Old French braire (“to cry out, roar”),[3][4][5][6][7][8] a verb recorded in Anglo-Norman from 1121–25 for the roaring, howling and crying of people and animals, donkeys among them.[9] The French verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *bragiō,[7][6][10][1] which the American Heritage and Merriam-Webster dictionaries take to be of Celtic origin;[7][6] the OED, Barnhart, Hoad and Etymonline say only that a Celtic source is possible,[3][5][8][4] and Etymonline and Klein think the base was probably imitative.[4][10] Merriam-Webster and Barnhart compare Middle Irish braigid (“he breaks wind”) and Latin frangō (“to break”),[6][5] and the OED fragor (“a crash”).[3] Wiktionary also mentions a Germanic origin, from the source of break.[1] The noun was formed from the verb, or comes from Old French brait (“a cry”).[3][11][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

To cry out, to give a loud harsh cry, especially of grief or pain: before 1300, in the Cursor Mundi.[3] Barnhart's first record is about 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne, of a child that began to bray and cry.[5][2] The noun, an outcry or shriek, is also recorded before 1300, in Kyng Alisaunder.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb was first used of people crying out and of animals roaring or bellowing,[2][8] and Weekley notes that it was once said of other animals and of people, not only of the ass.[12] The OED records it for horses, oxen and deer from 1380, and only later chiefly for the donkey;[3] in Berkshire dialect it still meant a horse's neighing in the 19th century.[13] From 1340 it was also used of wind, thunder and musical instruments, now especially the trumpet,[3][11] and since 1642 contemptuously of the human voice.[3] The sense of crying out in grief or pain died out in the early 17th century.[3][11] The noun followed the same path: an outcry (to 1596), a harsh sound such as Shakespeare's "harsh resounding trumpets' dreadful bray" in Richard II (1597), and the cry of the ass (1650).[3][14] In northern English dialects the verb also meant to shout or to abuse someone.[13]

Timeline

  • before 1300 – to cry out, especially in grief or pain (obsolete by 1604).[3]
  • before 1300 – noun, an outcry, a shriek (obsolete by 1596).[3]
  • 1340 – of wind, thunder or instruments, to make a loud harsh sound.[3]
  • 1380 – of animals, at first horses, oxen and deer, now chiefly the donkey.[3]
  • c. 1400 – transitive, to utter harshly, in Pearl.[3][2]
  • 1597 – noun, a loud harsh sound, as of trumpets.[3]
  • 1642 – contemptuously, of the human voice.[3]
  • 1650 – noun, the cry of the donkey.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of a donkey, to make its loud harsh cry.[15][6][3]
  2. To make a loud harsh sound like a donkey's, especially in laughing: He brayed at his own pun.[15][6]
  3. Of a trumpet, the wind or the like, to make a loud harsh jarring sound.[3][11]
  4. To utter something loudly and harshly: The sergeant brayed out his orders.[15][3]
  5. (obsolete, 1300–1604) To cry out or shriek, as in pain.[6][3][11]

Noun

  1. The loud harsh cry of a donkey.[15][6][3]
  2. A similar loud harsh sound or cry: a bray of laughter.[15][6][3]
  3. (obsolete, 1300–1596) An outcry; a shriek.[3][11]

Word family

  • outbray
  • braying

bray2 to pound, crush fine

Etymology

The verb meaning to pound is inherited from Middle English braien, also breien,[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman braier and Old French breier,[2][11][8][7] now broyer.[3][11][10] The Anglo-Norman verb, recorded from the first third of the 12th century, meant to crush, pound or knead.[9] The French verb is of Germanic origin,[7][6][16] from the Germanic base of break,[11][8][10] probably Frankish *brekan (“to break”), from Proto-Germanic *brekaną,[1][17] from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”).[7][1] The OED is more cautious: it cites Diez's comparison with Old Occitan bregar, Spanish bregar and Italian brigare and reports that Storm derived these Romance verbs from the Germanic verb for breaking.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To beat small, crush to powder, usually in a mortar: 1382, in the early version of the Wycliffite Bible, which has "fyve busshellis of brayid corn" in 1 Samuel 25:18.[3][12] The Middle English Dictionary also has it in the cookery book The Forme of Cury, before 1399, of almonds and pork brayed for broths.[2]

Semantic evolution

A figurative use grew from Coverdale's Bible of 1535, which says that a fool brayed in a mortar will not lose his foolishness (Proverbs 27:22);[3][12] Merriam-Webster still records the sense of wearing someone down as if by pounding.[6] Several crafts used the word: crushing flax or hemp with a brake (before 1398 to 1530), tempering and spreading printing ink (from 1688) and pounding and scouring woollen cloth (from 1879).[3] A brayer was a wooden pestle used to rub out ink in printing,[11] and a baker's pestle was called a bray around 1440.[3] Johnson (1755) defined the verb as "to pound, or grind small", quoting Chapman's Homer.[14] The word lived on in dialect: from Ireland and the northern counties to Lancashire it meant to beat, bruise or grind to powder, and in Scotland and Yorkshire to crush or overcome;[13] the OED records "to beat, thrash" as dialect from 1808.[3][11]

Timeline

  • 1382 – to crush to powder, usually in a mortar.[3][12]
  • before 1398 – to crush flax or hemp with a brake (obsolete by 1530).[3]
  • 1535 – figuratively, of braying a fool in a mortar.[3]
  • 1688 – to temper and spread printing ink.[3]
  • 1808 – dialect: to beat, thrash.[3][11]
  • 1879 – to pound and scour woollen cloth.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pound or crush into small pieces or powder, especially with a pestle in a mortar.[6][3][11]
  2. To wear down or crush as if by pounding.[6][3]
  3. To spread printing ink thin.[6][3]
  4. (dialect) To beat or thrash.[3][11][13]

Word family

  • brayer

Usage notes

Other words spelled bray are minor: a South African verb meaning to prepare or dress an animal's skin, from Afrikaans, recorded from 1835;[3][11] an obsolete verb meaning to pitch a ship, from French, used by Hakluyt in 1587;[3] and a heraldic charge representing a hemp-brake.[6][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 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 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
  10. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  13. ^ a b c d Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill