bridge

English has two words spelled bridge: the structure over a river or road, a native word, and the card game, an alteration of biritch, of unknown origin.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /brɪdʒ/^[4]

bridge¹ structure

Etymology

The structure is inherited from Middle English brigge,^[1][3] inherited from Old English brycg,^[5][1][2] from Proto-Germanic *brugjō,^[5][1] from Proto-Indo-European *bhru- (“log, beam”).^[5][1] It is cognate with Old Frisian brigge, Dutch brug, German Brücke and Old Norse bryggja “gangway”,^[5][1] and probably with Gaulish brīva “bridge” and Old Church Slavonic brŭvŭno “beam”.^[5][1][3] The original idea was of a beam or log laid down for crossing.^[5] The verb is inherited from Old English brycgian (“to make a causeway”), from the noun.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

A structure carrying a road over a river or ravine: about 1000, in Ælfric's Grammar.^[1][6]

Semantic evolution

The form brig remained in northern dialects.^[6] A drawbridge is from about 1205,^[6] and a landing stage or pier from about 1375.^[6] The bridge of a stringed instrument is from the late 14th century,^[5] and the bony upper part of the nose from the early 15th century.^[5] The bridge of a ship, at first a narrow raised platform across a steamer between the paddle-boxes from which the officer gave orders, is from 1843.^[5] Cross that bridge when you come to it is from 1850.^[6] The verb is from probably about 750 in Old English,^[1] and its figurative use, as in bridge the gap, is by 1831.^[5] In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire dialect to bridge meant “to beat down the price”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – a bridge over a river.^[1][6]
• c. 1205 – a drawbridge.^[6]
• late 14th century – of a stringed instrument.^[5]
• early 15th century – the bridge of the nose.^[5]
• 1831 – figurative verb.^[5]
• 1843 – a ship's bridge.^[5]
• 1850 – “cross the bridge when one comes to it”.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A structure carrying a road, path or railway over a river, road or other obstacle.
2. Something that connects or links: a bridge between cultures.
3. The upper bony ridge of the nose; the part of a pair of glasses resting on it.
4. A platform above the deck from which a ship is commanded.
5. A raised piece supporting the strings of a violin or similar instrument.
6. A fixed denture attached to neighbouring teeth.
7. (music) A passage linking two sections.

Verb

1. To build a bridge over; to span.
2. To cross or overcome: to bridge the gap.

Word family

• bridgehead
• bridgework
• drawbridge
• footbridge
• suspension bridge

bridge² card game

Etymology

The game is an alteration, influenced by bridge¹, of earlier biritch,^[1][5][3] a word of unknown origin.^[1][2][3] The OED thinks it probably Levantine, since a form of the game seems to have long been known in the Near East.^[5] One guess takes it from a Turkish phrase meaning “one, three”, because one hand is exposed and the other three concealed.^[5][1] Merriam-Webster suggests folk etymology: the dealer's passing the choice of trumps to his partner was seen as a “bridging” of the table.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

1886, in the London pamphlet Biritch, or Russian Whist, where biritch was a call of “no trumps”.^[1][5][3] The OED has a doubtful example from 1843.^[6][1]

Semantic evolution

The game was also called Russian whist, attested in English from 1839.^[5] It was played in the Near East in the 1870s.^[1] Later forms of the game include auction bridge and contract bridge.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 1839 – Russian whist.^[5]
• 1843 – doubtful first example.^[6][1]
• 1886 – biritch.^[1][5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A card game for four players in two partnerships, derived from whist.

Related words

• brig
• pontoon

Usage notes

In northern English and Irish dialect a bridge could also be a weighbridge.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster