Etymologically
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brink

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈbɹɪŋk/[1]
  • US: /ˈbɹiŋk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English brinke, also brenke,[2][3][4] not recorded in Old English and probably of Scandinavian origin:[2][5][6][7] the Shorter Oxford takes it as borrowed from Old Norse brekka (“slope”),[4] whose double k comes from an earlier nk,[8] and Hoad from an unrecorded Norse *brenkōn.[3] It is akin to Danish brink (“steepness, precipice”) and Swedish brink (“slope of a hill”),[2][9][10] and cognate with Middle Low German brink (“edge of a field, hillside”) and Middle Dutch brinc, now brink (“grassland”).[2][8][3] Collins instead derives it from the Middle Dutch word,[11] and Etymonline names Middle Low German or a Scandinavian source.[9] All go back to Proto-Germanic *brinkǭ,[12][9] which Etymonline and Klein trace to Proto-Indo-European *bʰreng- (“to project”), also the source of Lithuanian brinkti (“to swell”);[9][13] Merriam-Webster compares Latin frōns (“forehead”) and Old Irish braine (“prow, leader”).[5] Hoad and the Shorter Oxford call the Germanic word of unknown origin,[3][4] and Partridge saw a nasalized form of the base of break.[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The edge of land along water, a shore or bank: probably about 1225 in King Horn, of the seashore.[15][2] The OED has the sense of the edge at the top of a steep slope or of a pit from about the same time, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2]

Semantic evolution

Weekley notes that the word's history runs parallel with brim:[16] it could mean the bank of a river or the seashore, the brim of a vessel (from 1382 to 1709, and later in dialect also of a hat) or any margin or border.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as the edge of a place, "as of a precipice or a river".[17] The figurative sense, the very verge of a state or event, appears before 1400 in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle,[2] and is now the usual one, in phrases such as on the brink of ruin or the brink of the grave.[2][16] The special sense of the verge of war dates from 1956.[2] In Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire and nearby counties brink kept the sense of a river bank: two streets beside the river at Wisbech are the North and South Brinks.[18]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – the seashore or bank of a stream, in King Horn.[15][2]
  • before 1300 – the edge at the top of a steep place or pit.[2]
  • 1382 – the brim of a vessel (obsolete by 1709).[2]
  • before 1400 – figurative, the verge of a state or event.[2]
  • 1702 – on the brink of, on the point of.[2]
  • 1956 – the verge of war.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The edge at the top of a steep place: They stopped at the brink of the cliff.[11][5][2]
  2. The edge of land beside water; a bank.[11][5][2]
  3. The point at which something, usually bad, is about to happen; the verge: The talks brought the two countries back from the brink of war.[11][5][2]
  4. The highest point; the top.[11]

Word family

  • brinkless
  • brinkmanship

References

  1. ^ a b 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  10. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
  15. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  16. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  18. ^ 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)