Etymograph

English

brand

Brand comes from Middle English brand ‘fire, flame’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *brinnaną ‘to burn’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*brinnaną‘to burn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*brandaz‘flame’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*brand‘fire’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150brand‘fire’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘fire’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1513same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*brinnaną‘to burn’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanic, derivedc. 500 BCE–200 CE*brandaz‘flame’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*brand‘fire’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150brand‘fire’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500same form‘fire’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1513same form

Earliest quotation: 1513, Gavin Douglas: “The fearful brands and bleezes of het fire.”

The story

From Middle English brand, from Old English brand (‘fire; flame; burning; torch; sword’), from Proto-West Germanic *brand, from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (‘flame; flaming; fire-brand; torch; sword’), derived from Proto-Germanic *brinnaną (‘to burn’), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- (‘to boil; brew’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁- ‘to boil’

purple, bread, bourbon, bourne, brew, broth, fervor, fervent, ferment, brim, effervescent, porphyry, broil, purpura, 40 more

through Proto-Germanic *brinnaną ‘to burn’

burn, brunt, bren, briny, 3 more

Today it means

noun A mark or scar made by burning with a hot iron, especially to mark cattle or to classify the contents of a cask.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *brinnaną / brand

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