Brille

From Middle High German brille, berille, from berillus (“beryl”), from Latin beryllus (“beryl”). Compare dialectal English brills (“spectacles”).

Meaning 3 ("toilet seat") is derived in analogy with the usually round shape of spectacle frames surrounding the glass, just as a toilet seat surrounds the toilet hole.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʁɪlə/

• Audio (Austria):

  (file)

• Audio:

  (file)

Brille f (genitive Brille, plural Brillen)

1. (pair of) glasses, spectacles (frames bearing two lenses worn in front of the eyes to correct vision)
   • 1919, Walther Kabel, Irrende Seelen, Werner Dietsch Verlag, page 42:

     In einer Seitenstraße kaufte ich mir bei einem Optiker eine billige, blaue Brille und setzte sie sofort auf.

     In a side street, I bought a cheap, blue pair of glasses at an optician and immediately put them on.

2. (pair of) goggles (protective eyewear set in a flexible frame to fit snugly against the face)
3. toilet seat (hinged, contoured seat with a hole in the middle, of a toilet)
4. (medicine) nasal cannula for oxygen (clear plastic tubes for the delivery of oxygen to the nose)

• → Czech: brýle
• → Danish: briller (pl.)
• → Kashubian: brële
• → Lower Sorbian: bryla
• → Polish: bryle
• → Swedish: brillor (pl.)

• “Brille” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Brille” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Brille” in Duden online
• Brille on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de

Brille

1. plural of Brill