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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL7 source sections across 1 headword matching “Brake”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
brakeEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗brakeEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗brakeEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Apparently a shortened form of bracken. (Compare chick, chicken.)
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗brakeEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
From Old English *bracu, attested in a plural compound form fearnbraca (“thickets of fern”), probably from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”) and influenced by sense 2 (“fern”). Compare Middle Low German brake (“stump, branch”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗brakeEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
Late Middle English, from Middle Low German brake, Dutch braak, Old Dutch braeke; possibly related to sense 1.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗brakeEnglish (en) · Etymology 5Source text
brakeEnglish (en) · Etymology 6Source text
Inflected forms.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
More sources for this spelling
These are spelling matches, not a claim of identical senses or agreement. Historical accounts retain their own editions and limits; none is automatically promoted into reviewed ancestry.
Chambers (1908)
1908- BrakeEnglish · e-37683-3363
Brake, brāk, obsolete, pa.t. of Break.
Read the full source record → - BrakeEnglish · e-37683-3364
Brake, brāk, n. a fern: a place overgrown with ferns or briers; a thicket.—adj. Brak′y. [A doublet of Bracken; ety. dub.]
Read the full source record → - BrakeEnglish · e-37683-3365
Brake, brāk, n. an instrument to break flax or hemp: a harrow: a contrivance for retarding by friction the speed of carriages, wagons, trains, or revolving drums.—adj. Brake′less, without a brake.—ns. Brake′man, the man
Read the full source record → - BrakeEnglish · e-37683-3366
Brake, brāk, n. a handle, as of a pump: a lever for working a machine. [Prob. through O. Fr. brac, from L. brachium, an arm.]
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