bread - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Two loaves of bread (1).

Proto-West Germanic *braud

Old English brēad

Middle English bred

English bread

From Middle English bred, breed, from Old English brēad (“fragment, bit, morsel, crumb", also "bread”), from Proto-West Germanic *braud, from Proto-Germanic *braudą (“bread”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrewh₁- (“to boil; to brew”), from *bʰer- (“to bear, carry”). Alternatively, from Proto-Germanic *braudaz, *brauþaz (“broken piece, fragment”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰera- (“to split, beat, hew, struggle”) (see brittle). Perhaps a conflation of the two. Possibly a doublet of broa.

Cognates

Cognate with Scots breid (“bread”), Yola breed (“bread”), North Frisian bruad, Bruar, brüüdj (“bread”), Saterland Frisian Brood (“bread”), West Frisian brea (“bread”), Alemannic German brot, broud, bruat, bròt, bröt (“bread”), Cimbrian proat, pròat (“bread”), Dutch brood (“bread”), German Brot (“bread”), German Low German Brod, Brood, Broot, Brot, Bräot (“bread”), Limburgish broed (“bread”), Luxembourgish Brout (“bread”), Mòcheno proat (“bread”), Vilamovian brūt (“bread; loaf”), Yiddish ברויט (broyt, “bread”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål brød (“bread”), Elfdalian broð (“bread”), Faroese breyð (“bread”), Icelandic brauð (“bread”), Norn brau, brow (“bread”), Norwegian Nynorsk braud, brød (“bread”), Swedish bröd (“bread”), Crimean Gothic broe (“bread”); also Cornish brys (“thought; mind”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic beir (“bear, give birth to”), Welsh bryd (“aim, intent”), Latin fors (“chance, luck”), Greek φέρνω (férno), φέρω (féro, “to bear, carry”), Albanian brydh (“to ripen, soften; to crumble”), Latvian bērt (“to pour; to scatter, strew”), Lithuanian berti (“to scatter, strew”), Belarusian бру́ха (brúxa, “belly”), Czech břich, břicho, břuch (“belly”), Kashubian brzëch (“belly”), Polish brzuch, brzucho (“belly”), Russian брю́хо (brjúxo, “belly”), Slovak brucho (“belly”), Armenian բերել (berel, “to bring, fetch”), Persian بردن (bordan/burdan, “to bear, carry”), Tocharian A and Tocharian B pär- (“to bear; to wear”), Sanskrit भारयति (bhārayati, “to carry”).

Eclipsed non-native Middle English payn (“bread”), borrowed from Old French pain (“bread”). In this sense, mostly replaced loaf, which had been the more common term in Old English (see hlaf), a process which similarly occured in other languages such as German.

bread (countable and uncountable, plural breads)

  1. (uncountable)
    1. A foodstuff made by baking dough made from cereals.
      Hyponyms: tack, biscuit
      1. (especially) Such foodstuff that is not difficult to chew, being not extremely hard, dense, and dry.
        Coordinate terms: tack, biscuit
        We made sandwiches with the bread we bought from the bakery.
        My mother used to send me for the bread.
        * 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
        Philander went into the next room […] and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.
    2. Food; sustenance; support of life, in general.
      Synonym: staff of life
  2. (countable) Any variety of bread.
    Some breads are harder and drier than others.
  3. (slang, US or Cockney) Money.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:money
    • 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown‎[2], performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:
      Tastes like fruit when you hit it; got to have bread to get it.

baked dough made from cereals

countable: any variety of bread

slang: money

Translations to be checked

bread (third-person singular simple present breads, present participle breading, simple past and past participle breaded)

  1. (transitive) To coat with breadcrumbs.
    breaded fish

From Middle English brede (“breadth, width, extent”), from Old English brǣdu (“breadth, width, extent”), from Proto-Germanic *braidį̄ (“breadth”). Cognate with Scots brede, breid (“breadth”), Dutch breedte (“breadth”), German Breite (“breadth”), Swedish bredd (“breadth”), Icelandic breidd (“breadth”).

bread (plural breads)

  1. (obsolete or UK dialectal, Scotland) Breadth.

Variant of braid, from Middle English breden, from Old English brēdan, breġdan (“to braid”).

bread (third-person singular simple present breads, present participle breading, simple past and past participle breaded)

  1. (transitive) To form in meshes; net.

bread (plural breads)

  1. A piece of embroidery; a braid.

  2. ^ Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎[1], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 30, page 502.

bread

  1. (Early Middle English) alternative form of bred (“bread”)

From Old Frisian brēd, from Proto-West Germanic *braid, from Proto-Germanic *braidaz (“broad, wide”).

bread

  1. (Heligoland) wide

From Proto-West Germanic *braud, from Proto-Germanic *braudą, whence also Old Frisian brād (West Frisian brea), Old Saxon brōd (German Low German Broot, Brot), Dutch brood, Old High German brōt (German Brot), Old Norse brauð and Icelandic brauð (Swedish bröd).

brēad n

  1. bit, piece, morsel, crumb
  2. bread (foodstuff)

Strong _z_-stem:

bread

  1. second-person plural imperative of brear

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