v.
'break in two' (Modern English )
PGmc Ancestor
*brestan-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
bresta ‘crack, crash; snap, break, be split open; give way, break loose (etc.)’
(ONP bresta (1) (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
OE Cognate
toberstan 'burst apart, shatter, go to pieces'
Phonological and morphological markers
[
absence of metathesis
] (possibly diagnostic)Summary category
C2c
Forms of the v. without metathesis first occur in Orrm and continue to be concentrated in N, E and Midlands texts in MED's citations. See also brestes (v.).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
WA 640