Contextualizebeta

brach

noun
/bɹæt͡ʃ/US/bɹæk/US

Etymology

From Late Middle English brache (“hunting dog, especially a small scent hound; female dog, bitch (?); lapdog (?)”), probably a back-formation from Old French brachès, brachez, the plural of brachet (“female scent hound”), a diminutive of brac, from Old High German braccho, bracco, bracko (“scent hound”) (modern German Bracke); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Germanic *brēkijaną (compare Latin fragrō (“to emit a smell”), Middle High German bræhen (“to smell (something); to use the sense of smell; to have a (bad) smell”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreHg- (“to have a strong odour, to smell”). cognates * Italian bracco * Medieval Latin bracco * Occitan brac * Spanish braco

  1. derived from *bʰreHg-✻ — “to have a strong odour, to smell”
  2. derived from *brēkijaną✻
  3. derived from braccho
  4. derived from brachès
  5. inherited from brache — “hunting dog, especially a small scent hound; female dog, bitch (?); lapdog (?)”

Definitions

  1. Originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of…

    Originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell rather than by its vision”); later, any female hound; a bitch hound.

    • In ſome countreys no woman is ſo honourable as she that hath to doo with moſt men, and can give the luſtieſt ſtriker oddes by 25 times in one night, as Meſſalina did; and ſo it is with this his bratche, or bitch-foxe.
    • Truth is a dog that muſt to kenell, hee muſt be vvhipt out, vvhen Ladie oth'e [or the] brach may ſtand by the fire and ſtinke.

  2. A despicable or disagreeable woman

    A despicable or disagreeable woman; a bitch.

    • Avvay this Brach. I'll bring thee, Rogue, vvithin / The Statute of Sorcerie, triceſimo tertio [thirty-three] / Of Harry the eight: […]
    • Here's that ſhall ſtay your ſtomack better then the bit you ſnarle for. Thou greedy Brach thou.
    • Now, was it not the depth of absurdity—of genuine idiocy, for that pitiful, slavish, mean-minded brach to dream that I could love her?

  3. Clipping of brachiopod.

  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. A surname.

    2. A commune in Gironde department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for brach. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA