brain
EnglishEdit
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EtymologyEdit
From Middle English brayn, brain, from Old English bræġn (“brain”), from Proto-West Germanic *bragn, from Proto-Germanic *bragną (“brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregʰnom (“skull, brain”), from Proto-Indo-European *mregʰ- (“marrow, sinciput”) + *-mn̥ (“nominal suffix”).
Cognate with Scots braine, brane (“brain”), North Frisian brayen, brein (“brain”), Saterland Frisian Brainge (“brain”), West Frisian brein (“brain”), Dutch brein (“brain”), Low German Brägen, Bregen (“brain”) (whence German Bregen (“animal brain”)), Ancient Greek βρεχμός (brekhmós, “front part of the skull, top of the head”).
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
brain (countable and uncountable, plural brains)
- The control center of the central nervous system of an animal located in the skull which is responsible for perception, cognition, attention, memory, emotion, and action.
- Synonyms: harns; see also Thesaurus:brain
- 2013 July 19, Ian Sample, “Irregular bedtimes may affect children's brains”, in The Guardian Weekly[1], volume 189, number 6, page 34:
- Irregular bedtimes may disrupt healthy brain development in young children, according to a study of intelligence and sleeping habits. ¶ Going to bed at a different time each night affected girls more than boys, but both fared worse on mental tasks than children who had a set bedtime, researchers found.
- A part of the brain, especially associated with particular mental functions, abilities, etc.
- 1892, Benjamin Ward Richardson, The Asclepiad, page 357:
- The left brain, or that which supplies and animates the right side of the body, is the most active brain, as a general rule.
- 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 113:
- What is expressed in the lotus, the plumed serpent, or the staff of Osiris is the yogi's knowledge of the three brains of man. The first brain is the reptilian brain of the spinal cord, the brain of instinctive reflexes, the brain of the subconscious.
- (informal) An intelligent person.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:genius
- She was a total brain.
- 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Nexus:
- Peebee: The brains and I are comparing Remnant notes and filling in the blanks.
- (plural only) A person who provides the intelligence required for something.
- He is the brains behind the scheme.
- (in the plural) Intellect.
- 2008 Quaker Action (magazine) Rights trampled in rush to deport immigrant workers, Fall 2008, Vol. 89, No. 3, p. 8:
- "We provided a lot of brains and a lot of heart to the response when it was needed," says Sandra Sanchez, director of AFSC's Immigrants' Voice Program in Des Moines.
- She has a lot of brains.
- 2008 Quaker Action (magazine) Rights trampled in rush to deport immigrant workers, Fall 2008, Vol. 89, No. 3, p. 8:
- By analogy with a human brain, the part of a machine or computer that performs calculations.
- The computer's brain is capable of millions of calculations a second.
- (slang, vulgar, uncountable) Oral sex.
- 2012, Mack Maine featuring Turk and Mystikal, I'm On It
- You said I got brain from your dame in the range
- In the passing lane
- But you really ain't got no proof
- 2018, “Squidrific”, performed by SahBabii:
- She giving brain / She eat the dick up like some M&Ms
- 2012, Mack Maine featuring Turk and Mystikal, I'm On It
- (informal, slang) Mind.
- I have too much on my brain today.
- A loose compartment of a backpack that straps on over the top opening.
Derived termsEdit
- addle-brain
- afterbrain
- baby brain
- battle of the brains
- beat one's brain
- beat one's brains out
- beat someone's brains out
- beat someone's brains out
- big brain
- bird brain
- bird of one's own brain
- birdbrain
- blood-brain barrier
- blow someone's brains out
- Boltzmann brain
- booger brain
- bored out of one's brains
- brain bleach
- brain bucket
- brain cancer
- brain candy
- brain cell
- brain cloud
- brain coral
- brain cramp
- brain damage
- brain dead / braindead
- brain death
- brain disease
- brain disorder
- brain doctor
- brain drain
- brain dump
- brain fade
- brain fag
- brain farm
- brain fart
- brain fever
- brain fingerprinting
- brain fluid
- brain fog
- brain food
- brain freeze
- brain gain
- brain graph
- brain grey
- brain heavy
- brain imaging
- brain implant
- brain like a sieve
- brain mushroom
- brain rot
- brain sand
- brain scanner
- brain science
- brain stem / brainstem
- brain storm
- brain sugar
- brain surgeon
- brain surgery
- brain traffic
- brain trick
- brain trust
- brain tumor / brain tumour
- brain wave
- brain weary
- brain worker
- brain worm
- brain zap
- brain-bending
- brain-bucket
- brain-cramp
- brain-damaged
- brain-dead
- brain-fever
- brain-gain
- brain-melting
- brain-pan
- brain-rot
- brain-stabbing
- brain-storm
- brain-teaser / brainteaser
- brain-washing
- brain-worm
- brainbox
- braincase
- brainchild
- braingraph
- brainiac
- brainial
- brainish
- brainless
- brainly
- brainpan
- brainpower
- brains trust
- brains-truster
- brainsick
- brainstorm
- brainteaser
- brainwash
- brainwashing
- brainwave
- brainwork
- brainworker
- brainy
- bubble brain
- cudgel one's brain
- cudgel one's brains
- deep brain stimulation
- der-brain
- dick-brain
- dirtbrain
- dur-brain
- durr-brain
- electronic brain
- feather-brain
- featherbrain
- featherbrained
- forebrain
- fuck someone's brains out
- galaxy brain
- galaxy-brain
- give brain
- hairbrained
- harebrained
- hindbrain
- hot-brain
- jingle brains
- jingle-brains
- Jupiter brain
- lame brain
- lame-brain
- left brain
- lizard brain
- Matrioshka brain
- microbrain
- midbrain
- minimal brain dysfunction
- mommy brain
- more money than brains
- muscle-eye-brain disease
- no-brainer
- on the brain
- organic brain syndrome
- pea brain
- pea-brain
- peripheral brain
- permanent brain
- pick someone's brain
- pick someone's brains
- pregnancy brain
- rack one's brain, rack one's brains
- rack one's brains
- reptilian brain
- reverse brain drain
- right brain
- roof-brain chatter
- scatterbrain
- scatterbrained
- shit for brains
- shit-for-brains
- smell-brain
- smooth brain
- smooth-brained
- split brain
- trash for brains
- traumatic brain injury
- triune brain
- 'twixt-brain
- wash one's brain out with soap
- water on the brain
- wet brain
- wrack one's brain
- wrack one's brains
- yellow brain fungus
TranslationsEdit
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
See alsoEdit
- (brain lobes) brain lobe; frontal lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe, temporal lobe (Category: en:Brain)
VerbEdit
brain (third-person singular simple present brains, present participle braining, simple past and past participle brained)
- (transitive) To dash out the brains of; to kill by smashing the skull.
- (transitive, slang) To strike (someone) on the head.
- (transitive, figurative) To destroy; to put an end to.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 12:
- There thou maiſt braine him,
- c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 82, column 2:
- It was the ſwift celeritie of his death / […] That brain'd my purpoſe:
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 21, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
- He was going on with some wild reminiscences about his tomahawk-pipe, which, it seemed, had in its two uses both brained his foes and soothed his soul, when we were directly attracted to the sleeping rigger.
- (transitive, obsolete) To conceive in the mind; to understand.
- 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iv]:
- 'Tis still a dream, or else such stuff as madmen / Tongue, and brain not.
QuotationsEdit
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:brain.
TranslationsEdit
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Further readingEdit
AnagramsEdit
IrishEdit
NounEdit
brain m
MutationEdit
Irish mutation | ||
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Radical | Lenition | Eclipsis |
brain | bhrain | mbrain |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Middle EnglishEdit
NounEdit
brain
- Alternative form of brayn
Old IrishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
brain m
MutationEdit
Old Irish mutation | ||
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Radical | Lenition | Nasalization |
brain | brain pronounced with /v(ʲ)-/ |
mbrain |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
WelshEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
brain m pl
MutationEdit
Welsh mutation | |||
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radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
brain | frain | mrain | unchanged |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |