brazo

Forms

brazo m (plural brazos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote braço;^[2][3] barço and blazo also occur, the last in Juan Ruiz.^[2][3] Asturian has brazu.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish braço, inherited from Latin bracchium (“forearm; arm”).^[5][6][1] Latin also wrote brachium.^[6][7] Latin took the word from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn, “arm”).^[6][1][8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese braço, Galician brazo, Asturian brazu, Catalan braç, Occitan braç, French bras, Italian braccio and Romanian braț.^[9][1]

The Greek word is the comparative of βραχύς (brakhús, “short”), “the shorter one”, because the upper arm is shorter than the forearm.^[1][8] Gómez de Silva traces the adjective to Proto-Indo-European *mreghu- (“short”).^[8]

The Latin neuter plural bracchia gave braza, the span of the two outstretched arms.^[5][10][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to 1044.^[5] The plural brazos is in a charter of Covarrubias of 1112.^[2][11] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the full sense “arm”: the Cid receives Martín Antolínez abiertos amos los braços “with both arms open”.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the word first meant the forearm, from the elbow to the hand.^[7][14] In Alfonso X's prose it already names a quadruped's foreleg, the branch of a candlestick, and figuratively valour and power.^[15] The Diccionario de Autoridades gives the figurative senses “strength, power” and “branch of a tree” in 1726.^[16]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 adds the plural for “protectors” and the estates of the Cortes, brazo de la nobleza and brazo del reino.^[17] The 1869 edition has brazo de mar, an inlet, and brazo de río, a branch of a river.^[18] The 1884 edition first gives the narrower sense, the part from the shoulder to the elbow.^[19] Mechanics uses the word for the lever arm.^[20][6]

In Central America, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela de brazo means “arm in arm”.^[21] In Chile and elsewhere in the Americas the plural brazos means farm labourers.^[22] In Cuba it was once the telephone receiver.^[23]

Timeline

• 1044 – first record, as Corominas dates it.^[5]
• 1112 – the plural brazos in a charter of Covarrubias.^[2][11]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy) has braços.^[12][13]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the arm of a figure in a constellation.^[15]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria uses it for the branch of a candlestick.^[15]
• 1529 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City; in 1532 a source from Mexico speaks of a river splitting en dos brazos.^[24]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the senses “power” and “branch of a tree”.^[16]
• 1817 – the Academy adds brazo del reino and the plural for “protectors”.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the sense “upper arm”.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. arm: the limb from the shoulder to the end of the hand.^[6][1]
2. The upper arm, from the shoulder to the elbow.^[6][11]
3. The foreleg of a quadruped.^[6]
4. The arm of an armchair.^[6]
5. The branch of a chandelier or other light fitting that holds a light.^[6]
6. Each half of the beam of a balance; the jib of a crane.^[6]
7. A branch of a tree; each arm of a cross.^[6][1]
8. (figurative) Strength, courage, power: Contaba con el brazo de sus amigos.^[6]
9. The part of a group that has a given task, as in brazo armado “armed wing”.^[6]
10. (mechanics) The distance from the fulcrum of a lever to the point where a force acts.^[6]

Word family

• bracear
• bracero
• brazada
• brazal
• brazuelo
• abrazar
• antebrazo
• embrazar
• apoyabrazos
• descansabrazos
• reposabrazos

Related words

• abarcar
• braquial
• brazalete
• Latin bracchium
• Portuguese braço

Usage notes

Set phrases include brazo de mar “inlet”, a brazo partido “with all one's strength” and con los brazos abiertos “with open arms”.^[18][4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. brazo
3. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1929), Vocabulario medieval castellano, Madrid: Librería y Casa Editorial Hernando, p. 98
4. ^ a b Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. brazu
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. brazo
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. brazo
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. brazo
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1256
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. brazo
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. brazo
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. brazo
13. ^ a b Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 548
14. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. brazo
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 675
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 142
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 119
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 167
20. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 273
21. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 164
22. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 21
23. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. brazo
24. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. brazo