Etymology

burst

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Today it means: To break from internal pressure. Full definition →

Middle English bresten ← Old English berstan ← Proto-West Germanic *brestan
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰres-“to burst, break, crack, split, separate”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*brestaną
  3. Proto-West Germanic · derived from*brestan
  4. Old English · derived fromberstan
  5. Middle English · derived frombresten
  6. English todayburst

From Middle English bresten, bersten, from Old English berstan, from Proto-West Germanic *brestan, from Proto-Germanic *brestaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰres- (“to burst, break, crack, split, separate”), enlargement of *bʰreHi- (“to snip, split”). See also West Frisian boarste, Dutch barsten, Danish briste, Swedish brista; also Irish bris (“to break”)). More at brine. Also cognate to debris.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*brestaną all →

debrisbursten

Proto-Indo-European*bʰres- all →

braisebrasque

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.