v.
Gaw pres. 3 sg. britnez, past britned, pp. britned, brittened; WA infin breten, pres. 3 sg. brettens, brettenes, bretens, past pl. bretned, brityned, pp. bretened, bretind, brettend, bryttynyd, bryttynett, brytnyd
‘to break up, destroy; cut (up)’ (Modern English britten)
PGmc Ancestor
*ƀrut-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
brjóta ‘to break, damage, wreck (etc.)', brytja ‘to chop into pieces, quarter; cut into portions and serve’
(ONP brjóta (vb.); brytja (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far bróta, Icel brjóta, Norw brjota, Dan bryde, Sw bryta; Far brytja, Icel brytja, Norw brytja
OE Cognate
(ge)brytnian ‘to distribute, give’; cp. brȳtan ‘to crush, grind; break into pieces; destroy’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC3c
Fairly frequent in MED (from Orrm), esp. in the later period; a N and E word, esp. frequent in alliterative verse (inc. WPal.). Recorded in N dial of MnE (see EDD and OED).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 2, 680, 1339 etc.; WA 1307, 1328, 2479 etc.
The A MS of WA has the (closely related) variant reading bretted at 2256 and 2697; see further bretted (v.).
MED britnen (v.) , OED britten (v.) , HTOED , EDD britten (v.1), Dance britten, Bj. 15, de Vries brjóta; bryti, Mag. brjóta; brytja, Seebold breut-a- (1), Orel *ƀreutanan; *ƀrutjōjanan, Kroonen *breutan-, AEW brēotan; brytnian; brytt(i)an, DOE brēotan; brytnian; gebrytnian; bryttian; gebryttian (gebrytod)