Etymology
1. c.1205,
breidan "to dart, twist, pull," from O.E.
bregdan "to move quickly" (class III strong verb, past tense
brægd, past participle
brogden), from P.Gmc.
*bregthan "make sudden jerky movements from side to side" (cf. O.N.
bregða "to brandish, turn about, braid;" O.S.
bregdan "to weave;" Du.
breien "to knit;" O.H.G.
brettan "to draw, weave, braid"), from PIE base
*bherek- "to gleam, flash." The broader word survives only in the narrow definition of "plaiting hair," which was in O.E. The noun meaning "anything plaited or entwined" (especially hair) is from 1530.
2. From Middle English braiden, breided, bræiden, from Old English breġdan (“to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (wrestling), draw (sword), drag; bend, weave, braid, knit, join together; change color, vary, be transformed; bind, knot; move, be pulled; flash”), from Proto-West Germanic *bregdan, from Proto-Germanic *bregdaną (“to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēḱ-, *bʰrēǵ- (“to shine, shimmer”).
3. Cognate with Scots Scots brade, Scots braid (“to move quickly or suddenly”), Saterland Frisian braidje (“to knit”), West Frisian breidzje, Dutch breien (“to knit”), Low German breiden, German breiden, Bavarian bretten (“to move quickly, twitch”), Icelandic bregða (“to move quickly, jerk”), Faroese bregða (“to move quickly, react swiftly; to draw (sword)”) and Faroese bregda (“to plaid, braid, twist, twine”). See: Proto-Germanic '
*bregdaną', Scots '
brade', Frisian, Saterlandic 'braidje', Low Saxon 'breiden', German, old spelling '
breiden', Icelandic '
bregða', Faroese '
bregða', Faroese '
bregda'.