bridge

bridge · noun, verb¹

1. Old High German · derived fromsteg
2. German · semantic loan fromSteg
3. Old English · derived frombrycġian“to bridge, make a causeway, pave”
4. Middle English · derived frombriggen
5. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰerw-
6. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*brugjō
7. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*bruggju
8. Old English · inherited frombrycġ“bridge”
9. Middle English · inherited frombrigge
10. English todaybridge

From Middle English brigge, from Old English brycġ (“bridge”), from Proto-West Germanic *bruggju, from Proto-Germanic *brugjō, *brugjǭ (“bridge”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerw-, *bʰrēw- (“wooden flooring, decking, bridge”). Cognates Cognate with Scots brig, brigg (“bridge”), Yola burge (“bridge”), North Frisian brag, Bröch (“bridge”), Saterland Frisian Brääch, Brääg (“bridge”), West Frisian brêge (“bridge”), Dutch brug (“bridge”), German Brücke (“bridge”), Limburgish brögk (“bridge”), Luxembourgish Bréck (“bridge”), Vilamovian bryk (“bridge”), Yiddish בריק (brik, “bridge”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål brygge (“jetty, pier, wharf”), Faroese, Icelandic bryggja (“pier”), Norwegian Nynorsk brygge, bryggje (“jetty, pier, wharf”), Swedish brygga (“bridge; pier”). The verb is from Middle English briggen, from Old English brycġian (“to bridge, make a causeway, pave”), derived from the noun. Cognate with Dutch bruggen (“to bridge”), Middle Low German bruggen (“to bridge”), Old High German bruccōn (“to bridge”) (whence Modern German brücken). The sense of a part of a stringed instrument is a semantic loan from German Steg, from Old High German steg.

bridge · noun²

1. Turkish · derived frombir-üç“one-three”
2. Russian · derived fromбирю́ч
3. English todaybridge

From the earlier game biritch, probably from Russian бирю́ч (birjúč) or бири́ч (biríč); else from Turkish bir-üç (“one-three”).

Bridge · proper noun³

English surname, from the noun bridge.

Words from the same roots