braca

Forms

brāca f (genitive brācae); first declension^[1] It is nearly always plural, brācae (genitive brācārum); Ovid has the singular.^[2][3][4] Georges records the spellings bracca and brācha and a by-form brāx, plural brācēs, in the Tironian notes and Diocletian's price edict.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Gaulish *brāca (“trousers”):^[1][2][6] the TLL calls it a Gaulish word and cites Diodorus for it.^[5] Wiktionary suggests that the Gaulish word itself may come from Proto-Germanic *brōks (“rump, hindquarters; leggings, trousers”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrāg- (“rump, hock, hindquarters”), and compares Latin suffrāgō (“hock”).^[1] Köbler instead names the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰreǵ- (“to break, crack”).^[6] Lewis & Short compare Old English brōc and Dutch broek, and the TLL Old High German bruoh and Old Norse brók.^[3][5]

Isidore of Seville explained the name from brevis (“short”), because the garment is short and covers the private parts.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lucilius is the first to use it, in the eleventh book of his Satires.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

For the Romans these were the wide trousers of foreign peoples (Persians, Indians, Gauls, Germans), not a Roman dress.^[4][3][1] Virgil calls them barbarian coverings of the legs, Propertius describes striped ones, and Tacitus calls them a barbarian garment.^[3][4] A verse that Suetonius quotes says of the Gauls: Gallī brācās dēposuērunt, lātum clāvum sūmpsērunt, “the Gauls took off their trousers and put on the broad stripe”.^[3] Under the emperors Romans wore them too, as Ovid attests, and the Historia Augusta has white and scarlet ones.^[4][3] The Theodosian Code legislates on them in the form brācha.^[4]

Stelten glosses the singular as a coat and the plural as breeches.^[8] A waist-belt made from it, brācāle, is the source of English brail through Old French.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 180–102 BC – Lucilius uses it.^[4][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil calls them barbarian leg-coverings.^[3][6]
• 57/46–12 BC – Propertius describes striped ones.^[3][4][6]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid has the singular and attests them among Romans.^[3][4][6]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus calls them a barbarian garment.^[3][4][6]
• 301 AD – Diocletian's price edict uses the plural brācēs.^[4][6]
• 438 AD – The Theodosian Code has the form brācha.^[4][6]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name from brevis.^[5][7][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (usually plural) Trousers, breeches, as worn by the Gauls, Persians and other foreign peoples.^[2][3][4][1]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin, singular) A coat.^[8]

Word family

• bracarius
• brācātus
• brācīle
• brācilis

Related words

• English breeches

Usage notes

Braca is also the name of a mountain in Mauretania in Pliny the Elder.^[5][1] Medieval braca or bracca, a weir for fishing, is listed by Niermeyer as a separate word.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b c d e f Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
9. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill