Etymograph

English

brig

Brig comes from Italian brigantino ‘brig, brigantine’, from brigare ‘to connive, to strive to obtain by…’, and ultimately from Proto-Celtic *brīgos ‘power’.

  1. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*brīgos‘power’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Italianc. 1300–presentbriga‘trouble, bother’
  3. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentbrigare‘to connive, to strive to obtain by questionable means’
  4. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentbrigante
  5. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentbrigantino‘brig, brigantine’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1869brig

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Celticc. 1300–800 BCE*brīgos‘power’root as named · steps between not traced
  2. Italianc. 1300–presentbriga‘trouble, bother’
  3. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentbrigare‘to connive, to strive to obtain by questionable means’
  4. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentbrigante
  5. Italian, derivedc. 1300–presentbrigantino‘brig, brigantine’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1869brig

Earliest quotation: 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago: “Dorey harbour is in a fine bay, at one…”

The story

Abbreviated from brigantine, from Italian brigantino; in sense “jail”, from the use of such ships as prisons.

Linked words

through Proto-Celtic *brīgos ‘power’

brio, 3 more

Another origin of brig

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃bʰrúHs‘eyebrow’uncertain
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*h₃bʰruH-íh₂-uncertain
  3. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*brugjǭ‘bridge’reconstructed
  4. Old Norsec. 800–1350bryggja‘pier, gangway’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500brig
  6. Scotsc. 1450–presentsame form‘bridge’
  7. Englishtodaysame form

Today it means

noun A two-masted vessel, square-rigged on both foremast and mainmast.

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

Etymograph / Proto-Celtic *brīgos / brig

Shirt and support for this word