brave

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See also: bravé

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle French brave, borrowed from Italian bravo, itself either from Provençal brau (“show-off”), from Gaulish *bragos (compare Middle Irish breagha (modern breá) 'fine', Breton braga 'to strut') or from Latin *bravus, from a fusion of pravus and barbarus into a root *bravus. Or else misread from Latin brana,[1] from Gaulish brahaigne, "barren".[2]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

brave (comparative braver, superlative bravest)

  1. Strong in the face of fear; courageous.
    Synonyms: doughty, orped, resilient, stalwart
    Antonyms: cowardly, fearful, mean, weak # As in Laurie Lehman, undaunted by challenges and determined to move forward.
  2. (obsolete) Having any sort of superiority or excellence.
    • Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
      Iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth.
    • Samuel Pepys (1633-1703)
      It being a brave day, I walked to Whitehall.
  3. Making a fine show or display.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      Wear my dagger with the braver grace.
    • Robert Greene (1558-1592)
      For I have gold, and therefore will be brave. / In silks I'll rattle it of every color.
    • Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
      Frog and lizard in holiday coats / And turtle brave in his golden spots.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 29686887 , chapter IV:
      So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

brave (plural braves)

  1. (dated, possibly offensive) A Native American warrior.
  2. (obsolete) A man daring beyond discretion; a bully.
    • John Dryden
      Hot braves like thee may fight.
  3. (obsolete) A challenge; a defiance; bravado.
    • William Shakespeare
      Demetrius, thou dost overween in all; / And so in this, to bear me down with braves.

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

brave (third-person singular simple present braves, present participle braving, simple past and past participle braved)

  1. (transitive) To encounter with courage and fortitude, to defy, to provoke.
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act IV, sc. 3:
      For Cassius is aweary of the world;
      Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;
      Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed,
      Set in a notebook, learned, and conned by rote,
      To cast into my teeth.
    • 1670, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards:
      The ills of Love, not those of Fate, I fear,
      These I can brave, but those I cannot bear […]
    • 1773, A Farmer, Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, Number 53, December 2
      […] but they [Parliament] never will be braved into it.
    After braving tricks on the high-dive, he braved a jump off the first diving platform.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To adorn; to make fine or showy.
    • ca. 1590–92, William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew, Act Iv, sc. 3 (addressed to a tailor; first use in sense of "adorn", second and third uses in sense of "confront"):
      Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; brave
      not me. I will neither be faced nor braved.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://blog.oup.com/2013/11/brave-etymology-word-origin/
  2. ^ http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/BRANA

Esperanto[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

brava +‎ -e

Adverb[edit]

brave

  1. bravely, valiantly

Etymology 2[edit]

From Italian bravo.

Interjection[edit]

brave

  1. bravo

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Probably borrowed from Italian bravo, itself from a Latin *bravus, a fusion of prāvus and barbarus. Compare Spanish, Portuguese bravo.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

brave (plural braves)

  1. brave
  2. honest

Synonyms[edit]

Noun[edit]

brave m (plural braves)

  1. hero

Related terms[edit]

Related terms

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

German[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

brave

  1. inflected form of brav

Italian[edit]

Adjective[edit]

brave f pl

  1. Feminine plural of adjective bravo.

Norman[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Late Latin *bravus.

Adjective[edit]

brave m, f

  1. brave

Derived terms[edit]

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