Etymology
1. O.E.
bread "crumb, morsel," originally simply "piece of food" (cf. Slovenian
kruh "bread," lit. "a piece"), from P.Gmc.
*brautham (cf. O.N.
brot, Dan.
brød, Ger.
Brot), which would be from the root of brew (q.v.). But other authorities deny this and suggest the basic sense was not "cooked food" but "piece," and the O.E. word derives from a P.Gmc.
*braudsmon- "fragments, bits" (cf. O.H.G.
brosma "crumb") and is related to the root of break. Replaced by 1200 the O.E. word for bread, which was
hlaf, see loaf. The verb "to dress with bread crumbs" is from 1727. Slang meaning "money" dates from 1940s, but
bread-winner is from 1818.
Bread-and-butter in the fig. sense of "basic needs" is from 1732.
Bread and circuses (1914) is from L., in ref. to food and entertainment provided by governments to keep the populace happy.
"Duas tantum res anxius optat, Panem et circenses" [Juvenal,
Sat. x.80].
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewh₁-der.?
4. Proto-Germanic *braudą
5. Proto-West Germanic *braud
6. Old English brēad
7. Middle English bred
8. English bread
9. 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.
10. Cognates
11. 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”).
12. 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 hlāf), a process which similarly occured in other languages such as German. See: Cornish '
brys', Greek '
φέρνω', Lithuanian '
berti', Armenian '
բերել', Dari '
بردن', Sanskrit '
भारयति'.