Wiktionary

broad

See also: Broad. and B road

English

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Etymology 1

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    Etymology tree
    Proto-Indo-European *bʰer-der.?
    Proto-Germanic *braidaz
    Proto-West Germanic *braid
    Old English brād
    Middle English brod
    English broad

    From Middle English brood, brode, from Old English brād (“broad, flat, open, extended, spacious, wide, ample, copious”), from Proto-West Germanic *braid, from Proto-Germanic *braidaz (“broad”), of uncertain origin.

    Cognate with Scots braid (“broad”), West Frisian breed (“broad”), Saterland Frisian breed (“broad”), Low German breed (“broad”), breet, Dutch breed (“broad”), German breit (“broad, wide”), Danish, Swedish and Norwegian Bokmål bred (“broad”), Norwegian brei (“broad”), Icelandic breiður (“broad, wide”).

    Pronunciation

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    The failure of the /ɔː/ vowel of Middle English to shift to Modern /əʊ/ during the Great Vowel Shift is irregular and has not been conclusively explained; compare the similarly mysterious obsolete pronunciation of groat as /ɡɹɔːt/.

    Adjective

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    broad (comparative broader, superlative broadest)

    1. Wide in extent or scope.
      three feet broad
      the broad expanse of ocean
      • 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The Comic”, in Letters and Social Aims (The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson; VIII), Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, published 1903, page 130:
        Thus Falstaff, in Shakspeare, is a character of the broadest comedy, giving himself unreservedly to the senses, coolly ignoring the Reason, whilst he invokes its name, pretending to patriotism and to parental virtues, not with any intent to deceive, but only to make the fun perfect by enjoying the confusion betwixt reason and the negation of reason,—in other words, the rank rascaldom he is calling by its name.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
        Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
      • 2012 April 19, Josh Halliday, “Free speech haven or lawless cesspool – can the internet be civilised?”, in The Guardian:
        Julia Farrington, head of arts at Index on Censorship, argues that extra powers to ban violent videos online will "end up too broad and open to misapplication, which would damage freedom of expression".
      • 2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
        Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.
      • 2015 September 11, “Hotspots of Malaria Transmission in the Peruvian Amazon: Rapid Assessment through a Parasitological and Serological Survey”, in PLOS ONE‎[1], →DOI:
        The criterion for positivity was determined for each antigen of each species applying a mixture model to the PP data which assumed two inherent Gaussian distributions: a narrow distribution or seronegatives, and a broader distribution of seropositives.
    2. Extended, in the sense of diffused; open; clear; full.
      • 1720, William Bartlet, a sermon:
        broad and open day
      • May 12, 1860, Eliza Watson, Witches and witchcraft (in Once A Week, No. 46.)
        crushing the minds of its victims in the broad and open day
    3. Having a large measure of any thing or quality; unlimited; unrestrained.
    4. Comprehensive; liberal; enlarged.
      • 1819, D. Daggett, Sturges v. Crowninshield:
        The words in the Constitution are broad enough to include the case.
      • 1859, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster: An Oration On the Occasion of the Dedication of the Statue of Mr. Webster,:
        in a broad, statesmanlike, and masterly way
    5. Plain; evident.
      a broad hint
    6. General rather than specific.
      to be in broad agreement
    7. (writing) Unsubtle; obvious.
    8. Free; unrestrained; unconfined.
    9. (dated) Gross; coarse; indelicate.
      a broad compliment; a broad joke; broad humour
    10. (of an accent) Strongly regional.
      She still has a broad Scottish accent, despite moving to California 20 years ago.
    11. (Gaelic languages) Velarized, i.e. not palatalized.
    Antonyms
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    Derived terms
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    Terms derived from broad (adjective)
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    Translations
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    Noun

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    broad (plural broads)

    1. (UK) A shallow lake, one of a number of bodies of water in eastern Norfolk and Suffolk.
    2. A lathe tool for turning down the insides and bottoms of cylinders.[1]
    3. (UK, historical) A British gold coin worth 20 shillings, issued by the Commonwealth of England in 1656.
    4. (film, television) A kind of floodlight.
      • 1974, The Video Handbook, page 71:
        […] fresnel spotlights, old-type broads, sky-pans, cone-lights, etc.
      • 1976, Herbert Zettl, Television Production Handbook, volume 10, page 105:
        Some broads have barn doors (see page 115) to block gross light spill into other set areas; others have even an adjustable beam, […]
      • 2015, Jim Owens, Television Production, page 194:
        Light bounced from large white surfaces (e.g., matte reflector boards, or a white ceiling). Floodlights include scoops, broads, floodlight, banks, internally reflected units, strip lights, and cyclorama lights.
    5. (slang, archaic) A playing card.
      • 1927, Arthur Morris Binstead, The works of A. M. Binstead, volume 2, page 118:
        I reckon as old Sol couldn't ha' lived without a pack of broads. If he couldn't find anybody to play with him, he'd play alone, […]
    Derived terms
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    Etymology 2

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    Early 20th century, from American English. Perhaps from broad hips. Or from abroadwife (“woman who lives or travels without her husband, often a slave”).[2] There may also have been influence from bride and/or its German cognate Braut (“bride”, also “girlfriend”, and more generally “broad, young woman”).

    Noun

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    broad (plural broads)

    2. (dated) A prostitute, a woman of loose morals.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:prostitute
    4. (US, colloquial, slang, sometimes dated) A woman or girl.
      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:woman, Thesaurus:girl
      • 1950, Albert Mannheimer, Born Yesterday, spoken by Harry Brock:
        They always hook you in the end, them broads. This whole trouble is on account of a dame reads a book.
      • 1974, Oscar Williams, Michael Allin, Truck Turner, spoken by Jerry:
        Hey, man, Truck, you got to understand, she's a no class broad and you a gross son of a bitch. Naturally, she don't like you.
      • 1984, Charles Robert Anderson, The Grunts, Berkley Books, →ISBN, page 157:
        The grunts resumed their bitching at the heat, the hills, and the lack of cold beer and hot broads.
      • 1986, Tim Kazurinsky, Denise DeClue, About Last Night, spoken by Bernie (Jim Belushi):
        I mean, what the fuck. If a guy wants to get on with a broad on a more or less stable basis, who's to say to him no? Huh? A lot of these broads, you know, you just don't know, you know. I mean, a young woman in today's society, by the time she's 22–23, you don't know where the fuck she's been.
    Derived terms
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    Translations
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    See also

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    References

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    1. ^ Edward H[enry] Knight (1877) “Broad”, in Knight’s American Mechanical Dictionary. […], volumes I (A–GAS), New York, N.Y.: Hurd and Houghton […], →OCLC.
    2. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “broad”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

    Anagrams

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    Bavarian

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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    From Middle High German breit, from Old High German breit, from Proto-West Germanic *braid, from Proto-Germanic *braidaz. Cognates include German breit, Yiddish ברייט (breyt), Dutch breed, Old Norse breiðr, Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (braiþs).

    Pronunciation

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    Adjective

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    broad (comparative broader, superlative broaderstn) (West Central Bavarian, South Central Bavarian)

    1. broad, wide
    2. long (of a distance)

    Breton

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    Etymology

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    (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

    Noun

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    broad m (plural broiz)

    1. person from a country

    Inflection

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    The template Template:br-noun-mutation does not use the parameter(s): 
    g=m
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    Mutation of broad
    unmutated soft aspirate hard
    singular broad vroad unchanged proad
    plural broiz vroiz unchanged proiz

    Noun

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    broad f (plural broadoù)

    1. nation

    Inflection

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    The template Template:br-noun-mutation does not use the parameter(s): 
    g=f
    Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.

    Mutation of broad
    unmutated soft aspirate hard
    singular broad vroad unchanged proad
    plural broadoù vroadoù unchanged proadoù

    Derived terms

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