broek

broek¹ trousers

Pronunciation

• /bruk/^[1]

Forms

broek f (plural broeken, diminutive broekje n)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the garment is inherited from Middle Dutch broec, inherited from Old Dutch *bruoc, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *brōk, inherited from Proto-Germanic *brōks.^[2][1] The same word is Old Saxon brōk, Old High German bruohha, Old Frisian brēk, Old English brōc, whose plural brēc gave English breeches, and Old Norse brók.^[2][3][4]

Its further origin is uncertain.^[2] The only related form outside Germanic is a Celtic word known through Latin brāca (“leg covering”).^[2] The Romans saw the brāca as a typically Gaulish garment and called Gaul Gallia brācāta (“trousered Gaul”).^[2] Jaberg and Jacobsohn took the Germanic word as a borrowing from Celtic,^[3][5] while Franck–Van Wijk, Pisani and Kroonen consider the opposite, that the Gaulish word was borrowed from Germanic, as its root-final /k/ suggests.^[6][3][4] Middle Irish bróc was borrowed only later.^[2][6]

If the word is Germanic, the garment may have been named after the body part it covers: compare the Old English plural in the sense “backside”, whence English breech, the Old Norse word in the sense “thigh”, and Alemannic German bruech (“pubic region”).^[2] It would then be related to Latin suffrāgō (“hock of a quadruped's hind leg”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrāg-.^[2][4] Van Haeringen held the body-part senses to be secondary,^[5] and the EWN thinks a substrate origin more likely, given how few languages have the word.^[2] Much and, more cautiously, De Vries connected it with breken, as a garment “broken” into two legs.^[3][7] Polomé compared Albanian bres (“belt”), tracing both to Proto-Indo-European *bhrōĝo-.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle Dutch broeke, a plural meaning “leg coverings, breeches”, is first recorded in 1236 in Ghent, in a rule that the brothers may wear no linen next to the skin except breeches.^[2][8] A Limburg glossary of 1240 renders Latin brace with bruch.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal describes the garment as covering the lower body and the thighs and ending in two legs: in the 17th and 18th centuries it usually reached just past the knee, by 1900 down to the feet.^[9] It was long chiefly a man's garment.^[9] Later the outer broek was distinguished from the onderbroek, and underpants came into use for women in the 17th century: a text of 1644 praises the broexkens worn by young ladies.^[9] The long narrow trousers of the WNT's time had been worn only by sailors in the 18th century.^[9]

Many phrases use the word for the backside it covers: iemand voor de broek geven “to spank someone”, where coarse speech says gat or kont instead.^[9] De broek aanhebben is to be the boss at home, and iemand achter de broek zitten to keep urging someone on.^[10] In Flanders kus mijn broek! is a curse expressing contempt.^[11] Sailors called a rope running through the side planks of a gun carriage a broek (1681).^[12]

The word was borrowed into Russian as брюки (brjúki, “trousers”), and a related Russian borrowing names a rope for securing a ship's guns.^[13][1] Danish, Norwegian and Swedish took it from Dutch or Low German for kinds of rope.^[13] It lives on in Afrikaans broek, which passed it on to Zulu bhulukwe.^[13][1] Further borrowings are Sranan Tongo bruku, Papiamentu bruki, Berbice Dutch bruku and Negerhollands broek.^[1][13]

Timeline

• 1236 – Middle Dutch broeke “breeches” is first recorded, in Ghent.^[2][8]
• 1240 – A Limburg glossary gives bruch for Latin brace.^[8]
• 1573 – A dictionary glosses broeck with French and Latin words for breeches.^[9]
• 1644 – A text mentions the onderbroexkens “little underpants” worn by young ladies.^[9]
• 1681 – Broek is recorded as a rope on a gun carriage.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pair of trousers, the garment covering the lower body with a separate leg for each leg.^[14][10][1]
2. (chiefly diminutive) underpants, or the bottom half of underwear or a swimsuit.^[1]
3. The feathers covering a bird's lower belly and upper leg.^[15]

Word family

• onderbroek
• platbroek
• broeksband
• broekspijp
• broekvent
• broekie
• broekverbod
• schijtebroek
• broekzak
• broekriem
• broekschijter
• flodderbroek
• kousenbroek
• rijbroek

broek² marsh

Pronunciation

• /bruk/^[1]

Forms

broek n (plural broeken, diminutive broekje n)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the marsh is inherited from Middle Dutch broec, inherited from Old Dutch bruok, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *brōk.^[2][1][16] It is found only in West Germanic: Middle Low German brōk (“marshland”), Old High German bruoh (“marshland”) (modern German Bruch), Old Frisian brōk (“marsh”) and, with another sense, Old English brōc (“torrent, river, stream”), whence English brook.^[2][3]

Its origin is unclear.^[2] As the word is confined to an area bordering on the Celts, it is often taken as a borrowing from Proto-Celtic *brāgo-, from Proto-Indo-European *mrōgo-, the source also of Old Irish mruig (“land, farm”) and Welsh bro (“district”).^[2][7] It would then be related to mark “piece of land” and to breugel “fenced wood, hunting ground”, from *brogilo, a derivative of *broga (“region, land”).^[2][3] De Vries explained the sense from the role of marshes, like forests, as boundaries between tribes.^[3][7] Kluge, as the EWN reports, connects it instead with Proto-Germanic *brak- (“marsh, standing water”), from Proto-Indo-European *mreg-, the root of meer¹ “lake”, and so with brak and brijn.^[2] The EWN finds a substrate word more likely, as for those two words, given the narrow distribution and the landscape sense.^[2] Older explanations took it as “broken land”, from breken.^[3][6][17] Polomé proposed comparing Gaulish *bracu- (“marsh”), continued in French brai (“mud”), Old Occitan brac (“mud, pus”) and Italian brago (“mud”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in Old Dutch place names: bruok in Brucheim, recorded for 868 in an 18th-century copy, then Brokhem (918–948, probably in North Holland) and Bruocsella, Brussels (966).^[2][16] A Latin text of 1091 has in palustro sive bruco “in the marsh or broek”.^[2][16] Middle Dutch bruec “marsh” follows around 1240.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Originally the word meant a marsh: low, wet land flooded again and again by nearby rivers or brooks and overgrown with brushwood, rushes and reeds.^[9] Once the land was drained, it came to mean low grassland along rivers, cut by ditches and used as meadow or hayfield, which was often put under water in winter to make it more fertile.^[9][18] A 15th-century glossary renders it with Latin palus “swamp”.^[18]

The word is best known from place names such as Broek in Waterland and Broek op Langedijk, as well as in surnames such as Van den Broek and Ten Broeke.^[9] Surnames built on it are recorded from the 13th century: van den broeke at Antwerp in 1248 and uten broeke at Ghent in 1272.^[8] Already in Old Dutch times the word passed almost unchanged into Old French,^[16] and a French dialect has bruec “marsh”.^[13]

Timeline

• 868 – Bruok appears in the place name Brucheim, in an 18th-century copy.^[2][16]
• 918–948 – The place name Brokhem is recorded.^[2][19]
• 966 – Bruocsella, Brussels, is recorded.^[2]
• 1091 – A Latin text glosses palustrum “marsh” with bruco.^[2][16]
• c. 1240 – Middle Dutch bruec “marsh” is recorded.^[2]
• 1248 – The surname van den broeke is recorded at Antwerp.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A marsh, low-lying wet land that floods at times.^[14][10][1]

Word family

• broekland
• broekgrond
• broekweide