brazil

Brazil · proper noun¹

1. Vulgar Latin*brasa
2. Old Galician-Portuguesebrasa
3. Portuguesebrasa
4. Portuguesebrasil
5. PortugueseTerra do Brasilellip.
6. PortugueseBrasil
7. PortugueseBrazi
8. English todayBrazil

From Portuguese Brazil, older spelling of Brasil, from brasil (“brazilwood”), originally ‘red like an ember’, from brasa (“ember”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *brasō (“gleed, crackling coal”), and -il (“-ile, -like, -y”) from Latin -īlis (“adjective suffix”).

Brazil · proper noun²

1. Irish · derived fromÓ Breasail“descendant of Breasal”
2. English todayBrazil

Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Breasail (“descendant of Breasal”), a byname meaning "strife".

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• 14th–17th c. A red-orange dye obtained from brazil wood.
• from 15th c. The hard, brown wood of a certain species of the tribe Caesalpinieae; originally sappan (Biancaea sappan), of the East Indies, and later brazilwood, Paubrasilia echinata.