English
browse
Browse comes from Middle English browsen, and goes back to Old French brouster.
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400brouster
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500browsen
- Englishearliest quotation 1590browse
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400brouster
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500browsen
- Englishearliest quotation 1590browse
Earliest quotation: 1590, Edmund Spenser, Book III, Canto X: “And with their horned feet the greene gras wore,…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *bʰrews- ‘to swell, sprout’
Today it means
verb To scan, to casually look through in order to find items of interest, especially without knowledge of what to look for beforehand.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Old French brouster / browse