n.
Pe pl braþeʒ; Cl brath; WA brath, brathe
‘violence, impetuosity; agony, violent grief’
(Modern English )Commentators agree that ME brathþe should be interpreted as a n. formed from the ME adj. brath (see broþe) < the ON adj. represented by OIcel bráð-r ‘immediate, quick; sudden, violent, harsh, fierce; rash, impetuous, impatient’ (< PGmc *ƀrēþa-) + the English suffix –þu < PGmc *-iþō (commonly used to form abstract nouns in OE; EVG and MED suggest the synonymous ME wrathþe ‘offence’ < OE wrǣþþu is the direct model in this instance); cp. the OIcel sb. usage bráð ‘haste’. No cognate adj. occurs in the other Gmc languages, and de Vries argues for an original meaning ‘hot, steaming’, comparing the WGmc nouns formed on the same root OE brǣð ‘odour, exhalation, vapour’ and OHG brādam ‘haze, breath, heat’. Orel suggests the adj. might be formed on a v. *ƀrējanan, connected to PGmc *ƀrēđanan, cp. OSw part. brādhin ‘melted’, OE brǣdan ‘to roast, broil’ (which Bj. also connects with ME brāþ, etc.), OFris brēda, MLG braden, OHG brātan.
PGmc Ancestor
*ƀrēþa-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
bráðr ‘immediate, quick; sudden, violent, harsh, fierce; rash, impetuous, impatient’
(ONP bráðr (adj.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
cp. Far bráður, Icel bráður, Norw bråd, Dan brad, Sw dial brå(d)
OE Cognate
Phonological and morphological markers
ON /ɑ:/ < PGmc */e:/ (1)
[ON fricative /ð/ < PGmc */ð/] (possibly diagnostic)
Summary category
A1c
Exclusively N/E and Sc: the adj. is otherwise cited by MED only from Orrm, Cl, DT and WA; OED adds an instance from John Barbour. MED’s citations of the n. brath (brēth (n.(2)) begin with Cursor and are overwhelmingly N.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Pe 346, *1170; Cl 916; WA 1220, 1744, 1956 etc.
All editors read an instance of this word at Pe 1170, though the spelling is disputed depending on how the letter between <t> and <e> is read in the MS. EVG, Osgood and Moorman read it as <þ> superimposed on <h> and print brathþe, while Vant simply reads <h>; Goll prints brat[h]e (and in his 1891 edition bratthe, which in his note to the line he gives as the MS reading).