Where does “hellre än bra” come from?
hellre än bra (Swedish) comes from Swedish bra, from Swedish braf, from Low German brav, from French brave, from Italian bravo, from Vulgar Latin bravus, from Latin barbarus, from Ancient Greek βάρβαρος.
hellre än bra (Swedish): with pleasure, but without much skill
Definitions
- with pleasure, but without much skill
Ancestry of “hellre än bra”, step by step
hellre än bra traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Swedish bra
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Swedish | bra | good; well |
| 2 | Swedish | braf | good, brave |
| 3 | Low German | brav | — |
| 4 | French | brave | brave; honest; hero |
| 5 | Italian | bravo | good, well-behaved; good, skilful, capable,... |
| 6 | Vulgar Latin | bravus | — |
| 7 | Latin | barbarus | foreign; savage; uncivilized |
| 8 | Ancient Greek | βάρβαρος | non-Greek-speaking, foreign; barbaric, brutal,... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | balb- | — |
via Swedish än
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Swedish | än | still, yet; no matter; than; in comparisons,... |
| 2 | English | on | In the state of being active, functioning or... |
| 3 | Middle English | on | on, in; on; Alternative form of oon |
| 4 | Old English | on | on, in, at, among; from |
| 5 | Proto-West Germanic | ana | on |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | *an | — |
| 7 | Proto-Germanic | ana | on, at; on, onto; ana |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | h₂en- | on, onto |