brawn
See also: Brawn
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English brawne, from Old French braon (“slice of meat, fleshy part, buttock”), from Frankish *brādon, *brādan, accusative form of *brādō (“roasted meat, ham”), from Proto-Germanic *brēdô (“meat, roast”), of uncertain further origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreh₁- (“to burn, heat”).
Akin to Old High German brāto (“tender meat”) (German Braten (“roast”)), Old English brǣde, brǣd (“flesh, meat”), Old Norse bráð (“raw meat”).
Pronunciation edit
- (UK) IPA(key): /bɹɔːn/
- (US) IPA(key): /bɹɔn/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /bɹɑn/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔːn
Noun edit
brawn (uncountable)
- Strong muscles or lean flesh, especially of the arm, leg or thumb.
- Physical strength; muscularity.
- The builders at the site had more brawn than brain.
- (chiefly British) Head cheese; a terrine made from the head of a pig or calf; originally boar's meat.
- 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Oedipus Tyrannus; Or, Swellfoot The Tyrant: A Tragedy in Two Acts:
- Now if your Majesty would have our bristles
To bind your mortar with, or fill our colons
With rich blood, or make brawn out of our gristles,
In policy—ask else your royal Solons—
You ought to give us hog-wash and clean straw,
And sties well thatched; besides it is the law!
- 1978, Jane Gardam, God on the Rocks, Abacus, published 2014, page 111:
- It was brawn and shape for high tea.
- (UK, dialectal) A boar.
- 1821, John Stagg, The Cumbrian Minstrel: Being a Poetical Miscellany:
- And loud as brawns wer [they] snoring,
- 1842, Moses Aaron Richardson, The Borderer's Table Book: Or, Gatherings of the Local History:
- THE village of Brancepath, pleasantly situated at the distance of four miles and three- quarters south-west by west of Durham, is said to have derived its name (a corruption of Brawn's-path) from a brawn of vast size, [...]
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
strong muscles
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physical strength, muscularity
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terrine
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See also edit
Verb edit
brawn (third-person singular simple present brawns, present participle brawning, simple past and past participle brawned)
- (transitive) Make fat, especially of a boar.
- (intransitive) Become fat, especially of a boar.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
to make fat
to become fat
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Middle English edit
Noun edit
brawn
- Alternative form of brawne