"B" Word Origins

broadsheet

Origin

From broad + sheet.

broadside

Origin

From broad + side, originally a naval term for firing all the cannons on one side of a ship at once.

broadsword

Origin

From broad + sword.

Broadway

Origin

Literally "broad way," a wide road — the name has been used for centuries for wide thoroughfares, with the Manhattan street becoming the most famous example.

broadwing

Origin

From broad + wing.

brobdingnagian

Origin

From Brobdingnag + -ian, fictional country inhabited by giants in Gulliver's Travels.

brocade

French

From French brocart and Italian broccato, ultimately from a Gaulish root meaning a spike or shoot — the same root that gives us "broccoli."

broccoli

Latin · 1600

Borrowed in the late 1600s from Italian broccoli, plural of broccolo ("cabbage sprout"), from brocco ("shoot" or "sprout") — a relative of "brocade" and "brochure," which share the same Latin root for something pointed.

brochette

Origin

Borrowed from French brochette, diminutive of broche (“spit”).

brochure

Latin

From French brochure ("stitched work"), from brocher ("to stitch"), tracing back to a Latin word for something pointed — the same root behind "broach" and "broccoli."

Brock

Old English

From Old English broc ("badger"), likely borrowed from an ancient Celtic word for the animal.

Broderick

Welsh

Broderick is originally an Anglicised Irish/Welsh surname; the slang verb and noun sense (meaning a beating) grew out of British and Irish underworld slang, likely from rhyming-slang-style wordplay rather than any connection to a real person named Broderick.

brodie

Origin · 1800

The "friend" sense comes from "bro"/"broski," a shortening of brother; the "risky leap" sense is said to nod to Steve Brodie, a 19th-century New Yorker who claimed to have jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and survived.

brogan

Scottish Gaelic

Related to "brogue," possibly ultimately from an Irish or Scottish Gaelic word for "shoe," though the exact link is uncertain.

brogue

Origin

Borrowed from Irish bróg (“boot, shoe”), from Old Irish bróc (“shoe, greave, legging, hose, breeches”), likely from Old Norse brók (“breeches”), from Proto-Germanic *brōks (“breeches”). The "accent" sense may instead be derived from Irish barróg (“a hold (on the tongue)”).

broil

Origin

From Middle English broylen, brulen (“to broil, cook”), from Anglo-Norman bruiller, broiller (“to broil, roast”), Old French brusler, bruller (“to broil, roast, char”), a blend of two Old French verbs: * bruir (“to burn”), from Frankish *brōjan (“to burn, scald”) * usler (“to scorch”), from Latin ustulō (“to scorch”)

broke

Origin

An older past-tense form of "break," which survives today mainly as the adjective meaning "out of money."

brokeback

Origin · 2005

A compound of "break" and "back," first used in the 1940s for a hunched or bent back; it entered wider popular use after the 2005 film Brokeback Mountain.

broken

Old English

From Old English brocen, the past participle of the verb "to break," inherited from a common Germanic root.

brokenhearted

Origin

A straightforward compound of "broken" and "hearted," describing a heart figuratively shattered by grief.

broker

Middle English

From Middle English brocour, ultimately traced to an Old Dutch word for someone who determines trade customs — related to "brook" in its old sense of "to use" or "profit by."

brokerage

Origin

Formed from "broker" plus the suffix "-age," which turns it into either the business itself or the fee it charges.

brolationship

Origin

Blend of bro (“male comrade or friend”) + relationship.

brolic

Origin

While it's commonly believed that the name originated from Broly from the Dragon Ball anime franchise, (whose name is a transliteration of the Japanese ブロリー (Burorī), itself coined as a pun on the English broccoli, a theme used in the naming of members of the fictional Saiyan alien species (e.g. Vegeta, from vegetable)) - its usage actually predates Dragon Ball's popularity in the United States, likely existing in New York City at least before 1996.

Brom

Origin

A spelling variant of Brohm and Brahm.

bromance

Origin · 1990

A blend of "bro" and "romance," coined in the 1990s by an American skateboard-magazine editor to describe the close bonds between skaters who spent all their time together.

bromide

Origin

From "brom-" (bromine) plus "-ide." The "platitude" sense comes from American humorist Gelett Burgess, who first used "bromide" for a dull, conventional person — a nod to the compound's use as a calming, dulling sedative.

Bromley

Old English

From Old English brōm ("broom") plus lēah ("wood").

bronc

Origin

A clipped form of "bronco."

bronchial

Origin

Borrowed from Latin bronchiālis. By surface analysis, bronchium + -al.

bronchitis

Ancient Greek

From Late Latin bronchus, from the Ancient Greek brónkhos ("windpipe"), plus the medical suffix "-itis," meaning inflammation.

bronchodilatory

Origin

From broncho- + dilatory.

bronco

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish bronco ("rough"), which in Mexican Spanish also described a wild, unbroken horse.

broncobuster

Origin

From bronco + buster.

Broner

Origin

A variant of Brauner.

Bronson

Middle English

From Middle English Brun ("a man named Brown's") plus son.

Bronte

Ancient Greek

From Ancient Greek βροντή (brontḗ, "thunder").

Bronx

Dutch

Named after the Bronx, one of New York City's five boroughs, itself named for early Dutch settler Jonas Bronck.

bronze

French · 1500

Borrowed from French bronze in the early 1500s, from Italian bronzo, itself of uncertain origin.

brooch

Latin

A variant spelling of "broach," which comes from a Latin word for a pointed spike or awl — referring to the pin that fastens the jewelry.

brood

Old English

From Old English brōd ("brood, hatching"), tracing back to a very old root meaning "heat" or "breeding warmth."

brooder

Origin

From brood + -er.

brooding

Origin

From the verb "brood," in its sense of dwelling silently and unhappily on one's thoughts.

broody

English

From brood, in the sense of a hen sitting on her eggs, from Old English brōd.

brook

Old English

The "stream" sense comes from Old English broc; the verb sense ("to endure") comes separately from Old English brūcan, meaning "to use" or "enjoy" — the same root that gives us "broker."

Brooke

Origin

A topographic surname for someone who lived near a brook.

brookite

Origin

From Brooke + -ite, named in 1825 for English crystallographer Henry James Brooke.

Brooklyn

Dutch

From Dutch Breukelen, from broek ("wetland, marsh").