Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/67

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Bru
( 45 )
Bru

brüejen, brüen, ‘to scald, singe, burn’; comp. Du. broeijen, ‘to warm, brood’; in earlier ModHG., too, brühen signifies ‘to brood,’ In spite of the meaning, the connection with Bruch is, on phonetic grounds, improbable.

Brühl, m., ‘marshy copse,’ from MidHG. brüel, m., ‘low-land, marshy copse,’ OHG. bruil; from Fr. breuil, Prov. bruelh, ‘thicket’; of Kelt. origin (brogil).

brüllen, vb., ‘to roar, bellow, low,’ from the equiv. MidHG. brüelen; in UpG. dialects even now briele, brüele. The remarkable short ü of ModHG. compared with MidHG. üe may be explained by the pret. brülte, where the shortness of the vowel is produced by the following double consonant; OHG. *bruowilôn is wanting; allied perhaps to E. brawl?. From the root brô (‘to scald’) in the sense of ‘to bubble’?.

brummen, vb., ‘to growl, snarl, grumble,’ from MidHG. brummen, wk. vb., ‘to growl, hum,’ a deriv, of the MidHG. str. vb. brimmen, ‘to growl, roar’ (comp. the equiv. MidE. brimmen). This again is cognate with MidHG. brëmen, OHG. brëman, str. vb., ‘to growl, roar,’ since mm belongs properly only to the pres. and not to the other tenses. The cognates of the stem brëm-, which these verbs indicate, also includes OIc. brim, ‘surge,’ MidE. brim, ‘glow’ (E. brimstone); other related words may be found under Bremse. The Teut. root brem, pre-Teut. bhrëm, appears in Lat. fremere, ‘to gnash,’ with which some are fond of comparing Gr. βρέμεω, ‘to rumble.’ The OInd. bhram as a verbal stem significs ‘to move unsteadily’; bhramá, n., ‘whirling flame,’ bhrmí, m., ‘whirlwind.’ Hence the meaning ‘to rush, gnash, crackle,’ seems to have been developed from a vibrating motion, especially that of sound. See the following word.

Brunft, f., ‘rutting-time,’ from MidHG. brunft, f., ‘fire, heat, rutting season of deer, cry.’ The MidHG. brunft is of dual origin; in the sense of ‘heat’ it belongs to brennen, Brand. Brunft, ‘the rutting season of deer,’ was rightly connected, as early as Lessing, with brummen, since it “indicates the impulse of certain animals to copulation, that is to say, of those that roar or bellow in the act; ignorance and negligence have transformed this word into Brunft” (Lessing).

Brunn, Brunnen, Born, m., ‘fountain, spring, well.’ The form with the me-

tathesis of the r is LG.; the first two are based upon MidHG. brunne, m., ‘spring, spring-water, well’; OHG. brunno (beside which a form pfuzzi, ‘well,’ from Lat. puteus, appears in OHG.; comp. Pfütze). It is based upon an OTeut. word; Goth. brunna, ‘spring,’ AS. burna (for brunna), E. bourn (‘brook’). Brunnen has been derived from brennen, for which a primary meaning ‘to heave, seethe’ (comp. MidHG. LG. sôt, ‘well, draw-well’) is assumed without proof. Gr. φρέαρ, ‘well,’ scarcely points to a root bhru, ‘to heave, bubble’ (cognate with brauen?); nn may be a suffix, as perhaps in ModHG. Sonne.

Brünne, f., recently borrowed from the equiv. MidHG. brünne (OHG. brunna), f., ‘breastplate’; comp. Goth. brunjô (whence OFr. brunie), OIc. brynja, AS. byrne; not from brennen; the appellations ‘glowing, shining,’ scarcely suit the earlier leather breastplates. OIr. bruinne, ‘breast,’ is more probably allied. From Teut. are borrowed OFr. broigne and OSlov. brŭnja, ‘coat of mail.’

Brunst, f., from the equiv. MidHG. brunst, f., ‘burning, fire, glow, heat, devastation by fire’ (Brunftzeit, see Brunft); OHG. brunst, Goth. brunsts. In Eng. this deriv. from the root of brennen is wanting (comp. Kunst from kennen); the s before the suffix t is due to the double n of the verb.

Brust, f., ‘breast, chest, pap,’ from the equiv. MidHG. brust, OHG. brust, f.; it corresponds to Goth. brusts, a plur. noun (conson. stem), f., Du. and LG. borst. In the other OTeut. dialects the words corresponding exactly to Goth. brusts are wanting; they have a peculiar neut. form: AS. breóst, E. breast, OIc. brjóst, OSax. breost, which are related by gradation to HG. Brust. This term for breast is restricted to the Teut. languages (including OIr. bruinne, ‘breast’?), the individual members of the Aryan group differing in this instance from each other, while other parts of the body (see Bug) are designated by names common to all of them. Of the approximate primary meaning of Brust, or rather of the idea underlying the word, we know nothing; the only probable fact is that the primitive stem was originally declined in the dual, or rather in the plural.

Brut, f., ‘brood, spawn, brats,’ from MidHG. and OHG. bruot, f., ‘vivified by warmth, brood, animation by warmth, brooding, heat’; comp. Du. broed, AS. brôd.