brock

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English brok,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English brocc, also broc,^{[5][6][7][8][9]} borrowed from Proto-Celtic *brokkos,^[5][7] one of the few words the Anglo-Saxons took from Celtic.^[10] It is related to Old Irish brocc, Welsh broch, Cornish broch, Breton broc'h, Irish broc and Scottish Gaelic broc, all meaning "badger".^{[11][6][8][12]} The OED takes the Celtic word as probably related to Ancient Greek φορκός (phorkós, “grey, white”);^[11] Skeat explained the name from the white streaks on the badger's face,^[13] and Partridge as "the speckled beast", comparing breac (“speckled”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

A badger: in Old English, in the Leechdoms;^[11] the Middle English Dictionary quotes a gloss naming the animal taxonem "that is broce in English" (?a1200).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Laȝamon's Brut (about 1275) says that the Britons hid themselves in the earth and in tree stumps like brocks.^[2] In Middle English the word was sometimes used for the beaver as well (before 1387 to 1591).^[11][2] From about 1400 it was often paired with stinking,^[5][11][8] and it was used from 1607 as a term of abuse for a dirty or disreputable person.^[11][8][5] The word badger appears only in the early 16th century,^[15][10] and brock is now chiefly dialectal or literary:^[3][16] the Dialect Dictionary found it, already becoming obsolete, in Scotland, Ireland and every northern county down to Cheshire, and in scattered places further south.^[17] Collins describes it as a British name for the badger, used especially in stories.^[16] Johnson (1755) entered it simply as "a badger".^[18]

Timeline

• Old English – broc, brocc, a badger.^[11][9]
• c. 1275 – brockes, in Laȝamon's Brut.^[2]
• a1387 – also used of the beaver (until 1591).^[11]
• c. 1400 – often with stinking.^[5]
• 1607 – a dirty, stinking or disreputable person.^[11][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (British, chiefly dialect or literary) A badger, especially as a name for it in stories: Old Brock came out of his sett at dusk.
2. (dialect, derogatory) A dirty or contemptible person.

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
13. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
15. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
17. ^ 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)
18. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.