Where does “broadleaf” come from?
I notice this etymology chain has some issues that make it impossible to write an accurate sentence following your rules:
1. The chain contains circular elements (French bride appears twice)
2. The progression doesn't form a coherent path from oldest to newest language
3. The connection between "broad," "leef," "bride," and the PIE roots isn't clear
4. No meanings are supplied for most terms
5. The chain appears corrupted or incomplete
I cannot responsibly write an etymology sentence that names "every language in the chain in order" when the chain itself doesn't constitute a valid etymological path. To follow your mandate to "state only what the chain supports" and not "invent," I would need a corrected chain showing how broadleaf actually derives from its source languages.
Could you verify the etymology chain? A legitimate one would show something like: English broadleaf ← English broad + English leaf ← Old English brād
broadleaf (English): Pertaining to trees with relatively broad, flat...
Definitions
- Pertaining to trees with relatively broad, flat...
Ancestry of “broadleaf”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | leaf | The usually green and flat organ that represents... |
| 2 | Old English | Leofa | — |
| 3 | Old English | lēof | lief, dear |
| 4 | West Germanic | *leub | — |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | leubaz | dear, beloved |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | lewbʰ- | to desire, covet, want; to admire, praise; to... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | lēw- | to sound, resound, sing out; to leave |