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bridge

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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.
  • 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