brass

brass · noun, adjective, verb¹

1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*brasnaz“brazen”
2. Old English · inherited frombræs“brass, bronze”
3. Middle English · inherited frombras, bres
4. English todaybrass

From Middle English bras, bres, from Old English bræs (“brass, bronze”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps representing a backformation from Proto-Germanic *brasnaz (“brazen”), from or related to *brasō (“fire, pyre”). Compare Old Norse and Icelandic bras (“solder”), Icelandic brasa (“to harden in the fire”), Swedish brasa (“a small controlled fire”), Danish brase (“to fry”); French braser ("to solder"; > English braise) from the same Germanic root. Compare also Middle Dutch braspenninc ("a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch braspenning), Old Frisian bress (“copper”), Middle Low German bras (“metal, ore”). In the military sense an ellipsis of the brass hats.

brass · noun, adjective²

By ellipsis from brass nail, in turn from "nail[ing]" (fig.) and "brass blonde" (see "brazen"); and also shortened from Cockney Rhyming slang brass flute for "prostitute".

brass · noun³

1. Ancient Greek · derived fromβραχίων“upper arm”
2. Latin · derived frombrachia
3. Old Spanish · derived frombraça
4. Spanish · derived frombraza
5. Portuguese · derived frombraça
6. English todaybrass

From Portuguese braça and Spanish braza, from Old Galician-Portuguese and Old Spanish braça, from Latin brachia, variant of bracchium (“arm, cubit”), from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn, “upper arm”).

Words from the same roots