Where does “Briar” come from?
Briar (English) comes from French bruyère, from Old French bruiere, from Romanian bruia, from French brouiller, from Middle French brouiller, from Old French brouiller, from Vulgar Latin brodiculare, from Latin brodum — to bear, carry.
Briar (English): Any of many plants with thorny stems growing in dense clusters, such as many in the Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax genera
Definitions
- Any of many plants with thorny stems growing in dense clusters, such as many in the Rosa, Rubus, and Smilax genera
Ancestry of “Briar”, step by step
Briar traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French bruyère
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | bruyère | Heather, brier; A place of briers, a moor |
| 2 | Old French | bruiere | heather, heath |
| 3 | Romanian | bruia | to jam; to talk over someone |
| 4 | French | brouiller | to blur; to mix up, confuse; to scramble |
| 5 | Middle French | brouiller | — |
| 6 | Old French | brouiller | — |
| 7 | Vulgar Latin | brodiculare | to jumble together |
| 8 | Latin | brodum | broth, stew |
| 9 | Frankish | broþ | broth |
| 10 | Proto-Germanic | bruþą | broth |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰrewh₁- | to boil; to brew |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰer- | to bear, carry |