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WIKTIONARY VIA KAIKKI / WIKTEXTRACT
Imported dictionary evidence
These are source reports, not reviewed *SET-U ancestry. A list of templates or numbered etymologies is not an ancestor chain. Scholarly disagreements remain in the original source text.
35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL4 source sections across 1 headword matching “Bread”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
breadEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-der.? Proto-Germanic *braudą Proto-West Germanic *braud Old English brēad Middle English bred English bread From Middle English bred, breed, from Old English brēad (“fragment, bit, morsel, crumb", also "bread”), from Proto-West Germanic *braud, from Proto-Germanic *braudą (“bread”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”), from *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”). Alternatively, from Proto-Germanic *braudaz, *brauþaz (“broken piece, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰera- (“to split, beat, hew, struggle”) (see brittle). Perhaps a conflation of the two. Possibly a doublet of broa. Cognates Cognate with Scots breid (“bread”), Yola breed (“bread”), North Frisian bruad, Bruar, brüüdj (“bread”), Saterland Frisian Brood (“bread”), West Frisian brea (“bread”), Alemannic German brot, broud, bruat, bròt, bröt (“bread”), Cimbrian proat, pròat (“bread”), Dutch brood (“bread”), German Brot (“bread”), German Low German Brod, Brood, Broot, Brot, Bräot (“bread”), Limburgish broed (“bread”), Luxembourgish Brout (“bread”), Mòcheno proat (“bread”), Vilamovian brūt (“bread; loaf”), Yiddish ברויט (broyt, “bread”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål brød (“bread”), Elfdalian broð (“bread”), Faroese breyð (“bread”), Icelandic brauð (“bread”), Norn brau, brow (“bread”), Norwegian Nynorsk braud, brød (“bread”), Swedish bröd (“bread”), Crimean Gothic broe (“bread”); also Cornish brys (“thought; mind”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic beir (“bear, give birth to”), Welsh bryd (“aim, intent”), Latin fors (“chance, luck”), Greek φέρνω (férno), φέρω (féro, “to bear, carry”), Albanian brydh (“to ripen, soften; to crumble”), Latvian bērt (“to pour; to scatter, strew”), Lithuanian berti (“to scatter, strew”), Belarusian бру́ха (brúxa, “belly”), Czech břich, břicho, břuch (“belly”), Kashubian brzëch (“belly”), Polish brzuch, brzucho (“belly”), Russian брю́хо (brjúxo, “belly”), Slovak brucho (“belly”), Armenian բերել (berel, “to bring, fetch”), Persian بردن (bordan/burdan, “to bear, carry”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B pär- (“to bear; to wear”), Sanskrit भारयति (bhārayati, “to carry”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English payn (“bread”), borrowed from Old French pain (“bread”). In this sense, mostly replaced loaf, which had been the more common term in Old English (see hlāf), a process which similarly occured in other languages such as German.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗breadEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-der.? Proto-Germanic *braudą Proto-West Germanic *braud Old English brēad Middle English bred English bread From Middle English bred, breed, from Old English brēad (“fragment, bit, morsel, crumb", also "bread”), from Proto-West Germanic *braud, from Proto-Germanic *braudą (“bread”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”), from *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”). Alternatively, from Proto-Germanic *braudaz, *brauþaz (“broken piece, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰera- (“to split, beat, hew, struggle”) (see brittle). Perhaps a conflation of the two. Possibly a doublet of broa. Cognates Cognate with Scots breid (“bread”), Yola breed (“bread”), North Frisian bruad, Bruar, brüüdj (“bread”), Saterland Frisian Brood (“bread”), West Frisian brea (“bread”), Alemannic German brot, broud, bruat, bròt, bröt (“bread”), Cimbrian proat, pròat (“bread”), Dutch brood (“bread”), German Brot (“bread”), German Low German Brod, Brood, Broot, Brot, Bräot (“bread”), Limburgish broed (“bread”), Luxembourgish Brout (“bread”), Mòcheno proat (“bread”), Vilamovian brūt (“bread; loaf”), Yiddish ברויט (broyt, “bread”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål brød (“bread”), Elfdalian broð (“bread”), Faroese breyð (“bread”), Icelandic brauð (“bread”), Norn brau, brow (“bread”), Norwegian Nynorsk braud, brød (“bread”), Swedish bröd (“bread”), Crimean Gothic broe (“bread”); also Cornish brys (“thought; mind”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic beir (“bear, give birth to”), Welsh bryd (“aim, intent”), Latin fors (“chance, luck”), Greek φέρνω (férno), φέρω (féro, “to bear, carry”), Albanian brydh (“to ripen, soften; to crumble”), Latvian bērt (“to pour; to scatter, strew”), Lithuanian berti (“to scatter, strew”), Belarusian бру́ха (brúxa, “belly”), Czech břich, břicho, břuch (“belly”), Kashubian brzëch (“belly”), Polish brzuch, brzucho (“belly”), Russian брю́хо (brjúxo, “belly”), Slovak brucho (“belly”), Armenian բերել (berel, “to bring, fetch”), Persian بردن (bordan/burdan, “to bear, carry”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B pär- (“to bear; to wear”), Sanskrit भारयति (bhārayati, “to carry”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English payn (“bread”), borrowed from Old French pain (“bread”). In this sense, mostly replaced loaf, which had been the more common term in Old English (see hlāf), a process which similarly occured in other languages such as German.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗breadEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
From Middle English brede (“breadth, width, extent”), from Old English brǣdu (“breadth, width, extent”), from Proto-Germanic *braidį̄ (“breadth”). Cognate with Scots brede, breid (“breadth”), Dutch breedte (“breadth”), German Breite (“breadth”), Swedish bredd (“breadth”), Icelandic breidd (“breadth”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗breadEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
Variant of braid, from Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, breġdan (“to braid”).
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.
Browse the independently attributed sources →MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
lady
A woman of rank or a polite term for a woman; historically from an Old English household compound joining loaf with a kneading element.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗loaf
A shaped mass of bread; the inherited noun continues Old English hlāf through Middle English lof and a reconstructed Germanic bread word.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗lord
A ruler, master, or titled man; historically the worn-down descendant of an Old English compound joining loaf with guardian.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
*hlaibaz
loaf of bread
- DATE
- Proto-Germanic
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
hlāf
loaf; bread
- DATE
- Old English
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 3
loaf
shaped mass of bread
- DATE
- before the 12th century–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
lof
loaf of bread
- DATE
- Middle English
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 4
Are Celtic cais or cás unquestionably cognate with κῆδος?
No. They occur in a published wider comparison, but semantic breadth and branch membership remain debated.
Did frēond become polysemous only after Old English?
No. Companion, ally or non-enemy, relation, religious friend, and social-legal helper uses are already represented in the Old English citation record.
Does the bread noun loaf come from the verb meaning to idle?
No. The inherited noun continues Middle English lof and Old English hlāf; the idle verb is a later probable back-formation from loafer.
Does loaf guardian prove that every hlāford literally distributed bread?
No. The morphology is established; a literal social ritual for every speaker and use is not.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 3
Lord began as the loaf guardian.
Old English hlāford combines hlāf, loaf, with weard, guardian; title and mastery grew from a household compound.
Lady is not the feminine form of lord.
Old English hlǣfdige shares lord’s loaf component but pairs it with a kneading element, not guardian.
Loaf is the word inside both lord and lady.
Old English hlāf continues as loaf and is also the exact historical bread component shared by hlāford and hlǣfdige.
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “bread.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
No reviewed record in this collection contains “bread.” Absence describes this graph, not all of linguistic scholarship.
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