Etymology
Formally, ME
bred must derive from OE
brēad, < PGmc *
brauðan; cp. OIcel
brauð, OFris
brād, OS
brōd, OHG
brōt (and notice also Crimean Go
broe). Most authorities look no further than a native etymon for the ME word in all its senses. It has often been remarked, however, that OE
brēad is mainly attested in (what is assumed to be) the original sense, i.e. ‘piece, morsel of bread’ (glossing or translating Lat
buccella or
frustum; see
DOE sense (1a)), whereas the usual word denoting ‘bread’ the substance more generally (translating Lat
panis) was OE
hlāf (see e.g.
OED). Since the ON cognate could refer to both ‘bread, loaf (of bread)’ and a ‘piece of bread’, it has occasionally been suggested that ON input is to some extent behind the semantic broadening of late OE
brēad, ME
bred (thus perh. Jespersen 1938: §78 and (tentatively) Barber 2000: 132 and Barber, Beale and Shaw 2nd ed., 2009, p. 142, Miller 2012: 98 and Durkin 2014: 209). But the case for ON influence is not strong: the
DOE’s entry for
brēad cites a wide range of OE texts under its general sense (1) ‘bread’, inc. some for which ON lexical influence has not otherwise been supposed, and the same polysemy (‘piece of bread’ as well as ‘bread’ the substance) is also found in OS and OHG.
PGmc Ancestor
*brauðan
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
brauð 'bread'
(ONP brauð (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far breyð, Icel brauð, Norw braud, brød, Dan brød, Sw bröd
OE Cognate
brēad 'bit, crumb, morsel'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CCC3a