Wiktionary

branch

See also: Branch

EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

 
Tree branches

From Middle English branche, braunche, bronche, from Old French branche, branke, from Late Latin branca (“footprint”, later also “paw, claw”) (whence Middle High German pranke, German Pranke (“paw”)), of unknown origin.

Perhaps of Celtic origin, from a hypothetical Gaulish *vranca, from Proto-Indo-European *wrónk-eh₂.[1] If so, then Indo-European cognates include Old Norse vró (“angle, corner”), Lithuanian rankà (“hand”), Old Church Slavonic рѫка (rǫka, “hand”), Albanian rangë (“yardwork”).

The verb is from Middle English braunchen, from the noun.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

branch (plural branches)

  2. The woody part of a tree arising from the trunk and usually dividing.
  3. Any of the parts of something that divides like the branch of a tree.
    the branch of an antler, a chandelier, or a railway
  4. (chiefly Southern US) A creek or stream which flows into a larger river. (compare Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia run, and New York and New England brook.)
  5. (geometry) One of the portions of a curve that extends outwards to an indefinitely great distance.
    the branches of a hyperbola
  6. A location of an organization with several locations.
    Our main branch is downtown, and we have branches in all major suburbs.
  8. A line of family descent, in distinction from some other line or lines from the same stock; any descendant in such a line.
    the English branch of a family
    • 1602, Richard Carew, Survey of Cornwall:
      his father, a younger branch of the ancient stock
  9. (Mormonism) A local congregation of the LDS Church that is not large enough to form a ward; see Wikipedia article on ward in LDS church.
  11. An area in business or of knowledge, research.
    • 2012 January 1, Robert L. Dorit, “Rereading Darwin”, in American Scientist‎[1], volume 100, number 1, page 23:
      We live our lives in three dimensions for our threescore and ten allotted years. Yet every branch of contemporary science, from statistics to cosmology, alludes to processes that operate on scales outside of human experience: the millisecond and the nanometer, the eon and the light-year.
  12. (nautical) A certificate given by Trinity House to a pilot qualified to take navigational control of a ship in British waters.
  13. (computing) A sequence of code that is conditionally executed.
  14. (computing) A group of related files in a source control system, including for example source code, build scripts, and media such as images.
  15. (rail transport) A branch line.

SynonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

rail transport: branch line — see branch line
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

VerbEdit

branch (third-person singular simple present branches, present participle branching, simple past and past participle branched)

  1. (intransitive) To arise from the trunk or a larger branch of a tree.
  2. (intransitive) To produce branches.
  3. (transitive, intransitive) To (cause to) divide into separate parts or subdivisions.
  4. (intransitive, computing) To jump to a different location in a program, especially as the result of a conditional statement.
  5. (transitive, colloquial) To discipline (a union member) at a branch meeting.
    • 2003, Paul Routledge, The Bumper Book of British Lefties (page 199)
      His staff were 'not journalists, but Communists', he maintained. Nonetheless, in 1948 his vigorous editorship took the paper's circulation to 120,000 a day. The following year, he was 'branched' by the National Union of Journalists for an intemperate attack on Fleet Street.

Related termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

ReferencesEdit

  1. ^ “branch”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Further readingEdit

Haitian CreoleEdit

EtymologyEdit

From French branche (“branch”).

NounEdit

branch

  1. branch

Middle EnglishEdit

Etymology 1Edit

NounEdit

branch

  1. Alternative form of braunche

Etymology 2Edit

VerbEdit

branch

  1. Alternative form of braunchen
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