Etymologically
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brew

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /bɹuː/[1]
  • US: /bɹu/, /bɹɪʊ̯/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English brewen, inherited from Old English brēowan, a strong verb with the past tense brēaw and the past participle browen,[2][3][4][5] inherited from Proto-Germanic *brewwaną (“to brew”).[1][6][7] It is cognate with Old Frisian briūwa, Old Saxon breuwan, Middle Dutch brouwen, Old High German briuwan, German brauen and Old Norse brugga.[2][4][3][8] The Germanic verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bhreu- (“to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn”),[2][5][8] so that its original sense was to make a drink by boiling;[2][9] Ayto sees heat as its ancestral meaning, with fermentation a secondary idea.[9] The same root is perhaps seen in Latin dēfrutum (“new wine boiled down”)[3][4][10] and ferveō (“to boil”), the source of fervent,[9][4] and in English the verb is related to broth and possibly bread.[4][9][11] The OED notes that the Germanic root seems once to have had the wider sense of making a decoction or infusion.[3] The strong past tense lasted in Middle English until the 14th century and the strong past participle until the 16th, and longer in Scots, though weak forms appear as early as the 13th century.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make ale or beer by infusion, boiling and fermentation: before 900, in the Old English translation of Orosius.[3][4] Barnhart finds the Middle English form about 1250, in The Story of Genesis and Exodus.[4]

Semantic evolution

From about 1250 the verb was used of contriving evil, mischief or woe, often with bale or bitterness as its object,[3] and figurative uses that play on the literal sense are recorded from 1297, in Robert of Gloucester's chronicle.[3] Chaucer used it about 1386 of designs and schemes.[3] Etymonline dates the intransitive sense, of trouble being in preparation, to about 1300;[2] the OED records it from before 1400, in the Cursor Mundi, and its use of storms, wind and rain from 1530.[3] From the early 17th century, in Bacon, the verb was applied to making any drink by mixing or infusion, such as punch or tea.[3] The noun, a brewed drink or the process of brewing, is recorded from about 1510,[3][2][4] and Johnson (1755) defined it as the manner of brewing or the thing brewed.[12] The colloquial phrase to brew up, to make tea, dates from 1916 and the noun brew-up from 1944;[3] in British slang a brew was a meal in Kipling's school stories (1897) and a pot or drink of tea from 1898.[13] In Warwickshire a brew-house was a scullery or back kitchen.[14]

Timeline

  • before 900 – to make ale or beer, in the Old English Orosius.[3][4]
  • c. 1250 – to contrive evil or mischief.[3]
  • 1297 – figurative use, with conscious reference to the literal sense.[3]
  • c. 1386 – to devise plans or designs (Chaucer).[3]
  • before 1400 – intransitive, to be in preparation.[3]
  • c. 1510 – noun, the action or result of brewing; a brewed drink.[3][2]
  • 1530 – of rain, wind or a storm, to gather.[3]
  • before 1626 – to make a drink by mixing or infusion (Bacon).[3]
  • 1897 – slang, a meal.[13]
  • 1916 – to brew up, to make tea.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make beer or ale from malt and other ingredients by steeping, boiling and fermentation: The abbey has brewed its own beer for centuries.[15][10]
  2. To make tea or another drink by infusion or boiling.[15][10]
  3. To plan or bring about something, usually something troublesome.[15][10]
  4. To be in the process of being brewed: The coffee was brewing on the stove.[15]
  5. Of something unpleasant, to be forming or about to happen: A storm was brewing over the hills.[15][10]

Noun

  1. A drink made by brewing, especially beer or tea.[15][10]
  2. A serving of such a drink, such as a cup of tea or a glass of beer.[10][13]
  3. The amount brewed at one time, or an instance of brewing.[15][16]
  4. A mixture or concoction: a heady brew of nostalgia and anger.[15][10]

Word family

  • brewage
  • brewer
  • misbrew
  • rebrew
  • underbrew
  • unbrewed
  • brewery
  • brewhouse

Usage notes

In Irish, Manx, Cheshire and East Anglian dialect a brew is a steep bank or hill, recorded from 1887; it is a variant of brow and has a separate origin.[14][3][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  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. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  14. ^ a b 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)
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  16. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press