eyebrow

Etymology

It is a compound from English eye + brow.^[2][3][4][5] It replaced the older eye-bree, from eye and bree,^[4][2] which goes back to Old English ēagbrǣw, a word that meant "eyelid".^[3][6] Brow is from Old English brū, which itself probably first meant "eyebrow".^[3] The OED compares Middle Dutch oghebrauwe, Dutch oogbrauw, Old High German ougbrāwa and German Augenbraue.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The arched line of hair above each eye: before 1450, in Henry Lovelich's Merlin.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the early 15th century, and Dictionary.com to 1575–85.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

From 1583 the word was also used of the bony ridge above the eye,^[2] and in 1616, in Ben Jonson's Epicœne, of false or drawn eyebrows.^[2] In architecture an eyebrow is a moulding or other narrow part above an opening (1703), probably after the similar use of Latin supercilium.^[2] Bird watchers' use for a coloured stripe above a bird's eye dates from 1738.^[2] The phrase up to the eyebrows, deeply involved, dates from before 1627, to raise one's eyebrows, to show surprise or disapproval, from 1849, and to raise eyebrows, to cause surprise or mild shock, from 1921.^[2] The verb, first to attend to one's eyebrows (1837), then to signal with them (1876), is a 19th-century conversion of the noun.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1450 – the line of hair above the eye.^[2]
• 1583 – the ridge above the eye.^[2]
• 1616 – false or drawn eyebrows.^[2]
• before 1627 – up to the eyebrows.^[2]
• 1703 – architecture, a moulding above an opening.^[2]
• 1738 – a coloured stripe above a bird's eye.^[2]
• 1837 – verb, to attend to one's eyebrows.^[2]
• 1849 – to raise one's eyebrows.^[2]
• 1921 – to raise eyebrows.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The line of short hair growing along the ridge above each eye; also the ridge itself: He arched one eyebrow in surprise.^[5][2][4]
2. (architecture) A moulding or fillet over a window or door; also a low dormer over which the roof runs in a wavy line.^[5][4][2]
3. raise eyebrows: to cause surprise or mild disapproval.^[2]

Verb

1. To make a movement of the eyebrows expressing surprise, disapproval or understanding.^[2]

Word family

• eyebrow pencil

Related words

• eye
• brow
• eye-bree

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d 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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House