breeches

Etymology

It is a double plural:^[2][3] inherited from Middle English breches,^[4][2] a later plural of brech, also breche,^[4][5] inherited from Old English brēc,^[4][5][6] which was itself the plural of brōc (“garment for the legs and trunk”).^[4][2][7] The Old English plural came to be taken as a singular,^[8][6] so breech was the garment and breeches a new plural of it.^[4][3] The Old English noun goes back to Proto-Germanic *brōks,^[9][10][11] with its plural *brōkiz,^[4][2] and is cognate with Old Norse brók, Dutch broek, Old High German bruoh and German Bruch, the last obsolete since the 18th century except in Switzerland.^[6][2][12] Its further origin is uncertain.^[10][12][11] Etymonline, Barnhart and Merriam-Webster Unabridged connect it with break, from Proto-Indo-European *bhreg- (“to break”),^[2][4][13] on the idea of a forked or split garment;^[2] Kroonen calls the etymology disputed and accepts that derivation only if the first meaning was "behind", the area where the legs split.^[9] The relation to Gaulish brāca, the source of Latin brāca, French braies and Spanish braga, is also unsettled:^[2][14] the American Heritage Dictionary names it beside the Old English word,^[15] Klein derives it from Germanic,^[12] and the OED holds that the Germanic noun has every mark of a native word, the Celtic one being perhaps a cognate.^[6] Johnson had derived the English word from the "old Gaulish" one.^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

A garment covering the loins and thighs, at first perhaps only a breech-cloth and later reaching to the knees:^[6] Old English brōc is recorded before 900 and brēc before 1000,^[4] and the plural glosses femorālia in the Benedictine Rule.^[7][6] The double plural breches appears in Layamon's Brut, probably before 1200 in Barnhart^[4] and about 1200 in Etymonline.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the garment was usually an undergarment, a kind of drawers worn with a shirt,^[5] and it could be a singular brech or a plural.^[5][6] Chaucer has "a breech, and eek a sherte".^[5] The singular lasted into the 17th century,^[2][6] while "a pair of breeches" is perhaps not found before the 15th century.^[6] The word then split: the singular moved to the part of the body the garment covered, then to the rear part of a gun,^[2][17][6] while the plural kept the clothing.^[17][16] Johnson (1755) notes that in this sense it has no singular, and already gives to wear the breeches, of a wife who takes the husband's authority.^[16] The OED distinguishes breeches from trousers by their ending just below the knee,^[6] and today they survive mainly for riding and in ceremonial dress,^[17][18] though the word can still be used informally for any trousers.^[18][13] In northern English dialects breech or britch was still used as a singular for trousers.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the double plural breches, for a garment for the loins and thighs.^[2] Barnhart puts it probably before 1200.^[4]
• before 1500 – always plural, a pair of breeches.^[6]
• 1568 – to wear the breeches, of a dominant wife.^[6]
• 1642 – last record of the singular breech for the garment.^[6]
• 1785 – to have one's sitting breeches on, to outstay a welcome.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. Trousers ending at or just below the knee, now worn for riding and some ceremonial dress: She buttoned her riding breeches and went out to the stables.^[18][13][17]
2. (informal or dialect) Any trousers.^[18][13]
3. wear the breeches: of a woman, to be the dominant partner in a marriage or household.^[6][16]
4. too big for one's breeches: conceited, unduly sure of oneself.^[18][6]

Word family

• breeches buoy
• breeches part
• riding breeches
• Dutchman's breeches
• petticoat breeches

Related words

• breech
• britches
• breeks
• breach
• brogue
• bracket
• brail
• break

Usage notes

The usual pronunciation rhymes with witches, which the spelling britches records; a form with the vowel of breach is also given.^[13][18][21] In Scots the word is breeks, partly from the Old Norse form.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e 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)
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
12. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
14. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
15. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
16. ^ a b c d Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
19. ^ 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)
20. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
21. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House