bridd

Old English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Unknown; the word appears to be exclusive to Old English and lacks cognates in any other Germanic languages. Liberman notes that dozens of origins have been both suggested and rejected, leaving its original meaning and etymology a mystery.[1] It might possibly be from a non-Indo-European substrate, with a likely onomatopoeic origin.

Formally, however, the word may trace back to a Proto-West Germanic *bridi ~ *briddj-, possibly to Proto-Germanic *bridjaz, a derivative of *bredą (“board, plank, shelf", possibly also "perch, roost”), and may have therefore been used of young birds or fowl that were fledged and able to perch but not yet able to fly (i.e. "perch-ling", or "roost-ling"; compare modern English rooster, bougher, brancher, etc.), as opposed to fugol ~ fuglas the term for birds that were able to fly. If so, then possibly related to Old English bred (“board, plank, tablet”). Otherwise, the derivation remains unclear.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bridd/, [brid]

Noun

bridd m

  1. chick (a young bird or fledgling, as opposed to an altricial chick or hatchling)
  2. chicken

Declension

Strong a-stem:

singular plural
nominative bridd briddas
accusative bridd briddas
genitive briddes bridda
dative bridde briddum

Descendants

  • Middle English: brid, bryd, bridde

References

  1. ^ An Analytic Dictionary of the English Etymology: An Introduction. (n.d.). United Kingdom: U of Minnesota Press, p. 9-13

Welsh

Noun

bridd m

  1. soft mutation of pridd

Mutation

Mutated forms of pridd
radical soft nasal aspirate
pridd bridd mhridd phridd

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.