Etymology Explorer › Middle English

Where does “bray” come from?

bray (Middle English) comes from Old French braire, from Vulgar Latin bragio, from Gaulish bragu, from Welsh -u, from Middle Welsh -u, from Proto-Brythonic -oβ̃ — Forms verbal nouns, originally from thematic...

Ancestry of “bray”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Old Frenchbraireto bray; to cry out; to shout out
2Vulgar LatinbragioI bray, make animal noises; I cry, weep
3Gaulishbragu—
4Welsh-uimpression, imprint
5Middle Welsh-u—
6Proto-Brythonic-oβ̃Forms verbal nouns, originally from thematic...

Words derived from “bray”

  • braying
  • bray
  • brayer
  • brayingly
  • outbray
Every word from Proto-Brythonic -oβ̃ →