brach

From Late Middle English brache (“hunting dog, especially a small scent hound; female dog, bitch (?); lapdog (?)”),^[1] probably a back-formation from Old French brachès, brachez, the plural of brachet (“female scent hound”), a diminutive of brac, from Old High German braccho, bracco, bracko (“scent hound”) (modern German Bracke);^[2][3] further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Germanic *brēkijaną (compare Latin fragrō (“to emit a smell”), Middle High German bræhen (“to smell (something); to use the sense of smell; to have a (bad) smell”)),^[4] from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreHg- (“to have a strong odour, to smell”).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /bɹæt͡ʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (General American):

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• Rhymes: -ætʃ

brach (plural brachs or braches) (archaic)

2. (chiefly hunting) Originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell rather than by its vision”); later, any female hound; a bitch hound.

   Synonym: (obsolete) brachet

   • 1596, Tho[mas] Nashe, “Dialogus”, in Haue with You to Saffron-Walden. Or, Gabriell Harveys Hunt is Up. […], London: […] John Danter, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Have with You to Saffron-Walden (Miscellaneous Tracts; Temp. Eliz. and Jac. I), [London: s.n., 1870], →OCLC, page 134:

     In ſome countreys no woman is ſo honourable as she that hath to doo with moſt men, and can give the luſtieſt ſtriker oddes by 25 times in one night, as Meſſalina did; and ſo it is with this his bratche, or bitch-foxe.

   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], signature [C4], verso:

     Truth is a dog that muſt to kenell, hee muſt be vvhipt out, vvhen Ladie oth'e [or the] brach may ſtand by the fire and ſtinke.

   • c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […], published 1608, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi], signature [G4], recto:

     [A]uant you curs, / Be thy mouth, or blacke, or vvhite, tooth that poyſons if it bite, / Maſtife, grayhoũd [grayhound], mungril, grim-hoũd or ſpaniel, brach or him, / Bobtaile tike, or trũdletaile [trundletail], Tom vvill make them vveep & vvaile, […]

   • 1615, G[ervase] M[arkham], “[The Husbandmans Recreations: […].] Of Hunting, and of All the Particular Knowledges Belonging therunto.”, in Countrey Contentments, in Two Bookes: The First, Containing the Whole Art of Riding Great Horses in Very Short Time, […] The Second Intituled, The English Huswife: […], London: […] I[ohn] B[eale] for R[oger] Iackson, […], →OCLC, 1st section ([Of Hunting]), pages 25–26:

     [W]hen your Bratch is neere vvhelping, or hath vvhelpe; you ſhall ſeperate her from other Hounds, and haue a priuate Kennell for her, […] for vvhere a Bratch firſt vvhelpeth her litter, if they be remoued, ſhee vvil not leaue carrying her vvhelps vp and dovvne, til ſhee haue found the ſame place againe, or ſome other perhaps more vnfit then the former, […]

   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Non-necessary, Remote, Outward, Adventitious or Accidentall Causes: As First from the Nurse”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1, section 2, member 4, subsection 1, page 190:

     A ſow pigge by chance ſucked a Brach, and vvhen ſhe vvas grovvne, vvould miraculouſly hunt all manner of Deere, and that as vvell or rather better then any ordinary hound.

     The italicized text is a translation of a quotation from Gerald of Wales’s work Itinerarium Cambriae (1191).

   • 1848, Charles Kingsley, Junior, The Saint’s Tragedy; or, The True Story of Elizabeth of Hungary, […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], →OCLC, Act II, scene i, page 63:

     So we'll flatter them up, and we'll cocker them up, / Till we turn young brains; / And pamper the brach till we make her a wolf, / And get bit by the legs for our pains.

3. (derogatory) A despicable or disagreeable woman; a bitch.
   • 1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, signature B2, verso:

     Avvay this Brach. I'll bring thee, Rogue, vvithin / The Statute of Sorcerie, triceſimo tertio [thirty-three] / Of Harry the eight: […]

     Referring to the Witchcraft Act 1541 (33 Henry VIII, chapter 8), enacted in the 33rd year of Henry VIII’s reign and in force in 1542.

   • c. 1632 (date written), Richard Brome, “The Weeding of the Covent-Garden. Or The Middlesex-Justice of Peace.”, in [Alex[ander] Brome], editor, Five New Playes, […], London: […] [J. T.] for A[ndrew] Crook[e] […], and for H[enry] Brome […], published 1659 (indicated as 1658), →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 56:

     Here's that ſhall ſtay your ſtomack better then the bit you ſnarle for. Thou greedy Brach thou.

   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIV, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 340:

     Now, was it not the depth of absurdity—of genuine idiocy, for that pitiful, slavish, mean-minded brach to dream that I could love her?

Clipping of brach(iopod).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /bɹæk/
• Rhymes: -æk

brach (plural brachs)

1. (paleontology, informal) Clipping of brachiopod.

• scent hound on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “brach, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.

• B.Arch., Barch

Inherited from Old Czech brach. By surface analysis, bratr (“brother”) +‎ -ch.

• IPA^(key): [ˈbrax]
• Hyphenation: brach

brach m anim

1. (colloquial) bro
2. (colloquial) guy

• “brach”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “brach”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “brach”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech), 2008–2025

• IPA^(key): /braːx/, [bʁaːχ]

• Audio:

  (file)

Backformation from brachliegen, from in Brache liegen, from the noun Brache (“fallow land, fallowness”). Cognate with Dutch braak. Related with brechen (etymology 2).

brach (strong nominative masculine singular bracher, not comparable)

1. fallow

   Synonyms: unbestellt, unbebaut

• Brachland

• Brache
• brachliegen (brach liegen)

brach

1. first/third-person singular preterite of brechen

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

brach m (genitive singular bracha)

1. pus
2. discharge from eyes during sleep

• brachaí (“bleary”, adjective) (of eyes)
• brachshúileach (“blear-eyed”, adjective)

brach f (genitive singular braiche)

1. alternative form of braich (“malt”)

brach (present analytic brachann, future analytic brachfaidh, verbal noun brachadh, past participle brachta)

1. (ambitransitive) alternative form of braich (“malt”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “brach”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

• IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /ˈbrax/

brach

1. first/third-person singular preterite indicative of brëchen

• IPA^(key): (13^th CE) /ˈbrax/
• IPA^(key): (15^th CE) /ˈbrax/

brach

1. first-person singular aorist of bráti

From bratr +‎ -ch.

brach m pers

1. diminutive of bratr
2. brother
3. friend
4. lover

• Czech: brach

• Jan Gebauer (1903–1916) “brach”, in Slovník staročeský (in Czech), Prague: Česká grafická společnost "unie", Česká akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění

• IPA^(key): /ˈbrax/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ax
• Syllabification: brach

Clipping of brat + -ch.

brach m pers

1. (colloquial) bro (comrade or friend)

   Coordinate term: siora

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

brach m inan

1. locative plural of ber

   Synonym: berach

• brach in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• brach in Polish dictionaries at PWN