Etymology

breast

B3R1E1A1S1T1

Today it means: Either of the two organs on the front of a female human's chest, which contain the mammary glands; also the analogous organs in males. Full definition →

Middle English brest ← Old English brēost ← Proto-West Germanic *breust
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic*breustą
  2. Proto-West Germanic*breust
  3. Old Englishbrēost
  4. Middle Englishbrest
  5. English todaybreast

From Middle English brest, from Old English brēost, from Proto-West Germanic *breust, from Proto-Germanic *breustą, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrews- (“to swell”). Compare West Frisian boarst, Danish bryst, Swedish bröst; cf. also Dutch borst, German Brust.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*bʰrews- all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.