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brim

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Etymology and origin of the English word brim

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1275 Laȝamon's Brut
Inherited from
Middle English brimme

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English brimme, also brymme,[2][3][4] a word of uncertain origin with no known Old English ancestor.[2][5][6] Most dictionaries compare Old Norse barmr (“rim, edge”) and Middle High German brem (“edging, border”), modern German Bräme;[2][6][7][8][9] Barnhart notes that the Old Norse word is itself cognate with Berme, Dutch berm and with berm.[7] Ayto points to a prehistoric Germanic source Proto-Germanic *berm- or *barm-, perhaps from the stem of bear "carry", so that the first sense would be "raised border".[5] Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *bʰrem- (“point, spike, edge”),[4][7] and Klein links it with broom and with Brombeere (“blackberry”).[10] Merriam-Webster compares Latin frōns (“leafy branch”).[8] Barnhart thinks the form may have been influenced by brim (“sea, surf”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The shore of the sea or the bank of a river: about 1275, in a manuscript of Laȝamon's Brut that may go back to before 1200.[2][3] Etymonline dates it to about 1200, and calls it chiefly a Northern word.[4]

Semantic evolution

From the edge of water the word spread in the 16th century to the edge of other things (1525) and then to the upper edge of a cup or bowl (1546);[2][4] the brim of a hat first appears in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis (1594).[2][5] The phrase to the brim is recorded from 1609, again in Shakespeare.[2] Johnson (1755) gave "the edge of anything" and "the upper edge of any vessel".[11] The verb, to fill to the brim, followed in the early 17th century, and the intransitive sense "to be full to the brim" in Keats (1818); brim over is recorded from 1825.[2][4] In Somerset dialect a brim was a bank or hedge-side overgrown with brambles, and in Westmorland the word was used for the limit of one's patience.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 1275 – the shore of the sea, the bank of a river.[2][3]
  • 1525 – the edge or border of other things.[2]
  • 1546 – the upper edge of a cup or bowl.[2][4]
  • 1594 – the projecting rim of a hat.[2][5]
  • 1609 – to the brim, completely full.[2]
  • 1611 – verb, to fill to the brim.[2] Merriam-Webster dates the transitive verb to 1598.[8]
  • 1818 – verb, to be full to the brim.[2][4]
  • 1825 – brim over, to overflow.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The upper edge of a cup, bowl or other hollow container: She filled the jug to the brim.[13][8][2]
  2. The projecting rim of a hat.[13][8][2]
  3. The edge or brink of something.[13][8]
  4. (archaic) The edge of the sea or of another body of water; a shore or bank.[8][2]

Verb

  1. To be full to the top, often to the point of overflowing; often with over: His eyes brimmed with tears.[13][8][2]
  2. To fill something to the brim.[13][8][2]

Word family

  • brimless
  • brimmingly
  • brimful
  • broadbrim
  • underbrim
  • brimmed
  • brimmer

Usage notes

Several other words have been spelled brim: Old English had brim, sea, surf, which died out in Middle English, though Spenser may have used it.[2][4] A dialect verb brim, of a sow, to be in heat, is recorded from about 1420.[2][8][12] Brim was also a short form of brimstone for a bad-tempered or loose woman (1736),[2][14] and in the United States a variant of bream.[2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c 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)
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  12. ^ 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)
  13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  14. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
Cite this entry

“Brim.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/brim. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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