Etymograph

English

bread

Bread comes from Middle English bred ‘bread, pastry’, and goes back to Proto-Germanic *braudą.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*braudąreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*braudreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150brēad‘fragment’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bred‘bread’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1611bread

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*braudąreconstructed
  2. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*braudreconstructed
  3. Old Englishc. 450–1150brēad‘fragment’
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bred‘bread’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 1611bread

Earliest quotation: 1611, The Holy Bible, London: […] Robert Barker: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Linked words

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

brand, burn, purple, bourbon, bourne, broth, fervor, fervent, brewer, brew, ferment, brunt, brim, effervescent, porphyry, broil, purpura, bren, briny, 39 more

through Middle English bred ‘bread, pastry’

bred, 1 more

Another origin of bread

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150brēdan‘to braid’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500breden‘to breed’
  3. Englishtodaybread

Today it means

noun A foodstuff made by baking dough made from cereals.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *braudą / bread

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