brae

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See also: bræ and -brae

English

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Etymology

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Braes (sense 1) of a river valley in Scotland, United Kingdom

From Middle English bro, bra (bank of a stream; raised edge of a ditch or pit),[1] from Old Norse brá (eyebrow; eyelash) (probably in the sense of the brow of a hill), from Proto-Germanic *brēwō (eyebrow),[2][3] from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (eyebrow).

The English word is cognate with Old English brǣw, brēaw (eyelid), Old High German brāwa (Middle High German brā, modern German Braue (eyebrow)), Old Saxon brāwa, brāha (eyebrow; eyelash);[2] and is a doublet of bree ((Scotland) brow; forehead; (obsolete or dialectal, Scotland) eyebrow; eyelid) and brow.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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brae (plural braes)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland) The sloping bank of a river valley.
  2. (Northern England, Scotland) Any hillside or slope.
    • 1828 August 1, “A.”, “A Visit to the Covenanters. (Concluded.)”, in The Paisley Magazine, volume I, number 8, Paisley, Renfrewshire: David Dick, →OCLC, page 392:
      You are directed to the particular part of the brae where the Covenanters stationed themselves, (at the time of my visit it was a field of pasture, on which some cows were quietly feeding,) and the eminence behind, [...]
    • 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN; republished London: Vintage Books, 2015, →ISBN, page 19:
      The party was in a big bungalow with an enormous brae for a garden.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ brō, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 26 April 2019.
  2. 2.0 2.1 brae, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1888.
  3. ^ brae, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Scots

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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brae (plural braes)

  1. a hillside, hill
  2. a slope or bank

Derived terms

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