Etymograph

English

brogue

Brogue comes from Irish bróg ‘boot, shoe’, and goes back to Old Irish bróc.

  1. Old Irishc. 600–900bróc‘shoe, greave, legging, hose, breeches’
  2. Irishc. 1200–presentbróg‘boot, shoe’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1978brogue

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Old Irishc. 600–900bróc‘shoe, greave, legging, hose, breeches’
  2. Irishc. 1200–presentbróg‘boot, shoe’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1978brogue

Earliest quotation: 1978, Louis L'Amour, Fair Blows the Wind: “I had no doubt he knew where I was…”

The story

The "accent" sense may instead be derived from Irish barróg (‘a hold (on the tongue)’).

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- ‘to break, crack, split’

break, broken, broke, fraction, fragile, fracture, brake, brigade, refrain, fragment, suffrage, frail, fret, bray, infringe, fractal, refractory, breeches, 37 more

through Proto-Germanic *brōks ‘breeches’

bracket, breech, 2 more

through Irish bróg ‘boot, shoe’

brogan

Another origin of brogue

  1. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*brodiculāreuncertain
  2. Old Frenchc. 842–1400brouilleruncertain
  3. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same formuncertain
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘to blur’uncertain
  5. Englishtodaybrogue

Today it means

noun A strong dialectal accent, usually Irish or Scottish.

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

Etymograph / Old Irish bróc / brogue

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