bréchet

Forms

bréchet m (plural bréchets)^[1] Middle French bruchet (1354–1376), bruschet (1385), brichet (about 1393) and brechet (1552).^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle French bruchet, probably borrowed from Middle English brusket (“brisket”), recorded in 1338.^[2][5][1][6] The form brechet (1552) may have been altered after ébrécher and brécher.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg think that the word was brought to France during the Hundred Years' War.^[5] The variant brichet may be a second borrowing, of the English form brisket, which took its vowel from breast.^[2][3]

Rey links the English word, perhaps through a supposed Anglo-Norman *brusket, to Old Norse brjósk (“cartilage”) with the suffix -et, and finds a direct borrowing of French from Old Norse unlikely on phonetic grounds.^[2] Bloch and Wartburg take the English word from a Germanic word for the breast seen in Old High German brust, related to the Old Norse word.^[5] Etymonline, on the other hand, allows that the English word may come from the French form bruschet.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word names the bony ridge on the breastbone of most birds.^[2][4] By extension it is used, with stylistic or ironic intent, for the human sternum,^[2][8] and familiarly or in slang for a person's chest or stomach.^[8][9]

Timeline

• 1338 – Middle English brusket is recorded.^[2]
• 1354–1376 – Bruchet is first recorded in French.^[2]
• 1385 – The spelling bruschet.^[2]
• c. 1393 – The variant brichet.^[2]
• 1552 – The form brechet appears.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) The keel, the bony ridge on the outer face of the breastbone of most birds.^[4][9]
2. By extension, the breastbone itself.^[8][1]
3. (familiar, humorous) A person's chest or stomach.^[8][9]

Related words

• English brisket

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 15/1, 311a
7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
9. ^ a b c Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard