brow
pronunciation
How to pronounce brow in British English:
UK [braʊ]
How to pronounce brow in American English:
US [braʊ]
-
- Noun:
- the part of the face above the eyes
- the arch of hair above each eye
- the peak of a hill
Word Origin
- brow
- brow: [OE] In Old English, brow meant ‘eyelash’, but there seems little doubt, from related words in other languages (such as Sanskrit bhrūs and Greek ophrus), that the original underlying sense of the word is ‘eyebrow’, and this resurfaced, or was recreated, in English in the 11th century. Its ultimate source is Indo- European *bhrūs, which passed via Germanic brūs into Old English as brū.
- brow (n.)
- early 14c., browes, brues "brow, forehead, eyebrow," earlier brouwes (c. 1300), bruwen (c. 1200), from Old English bru, probably originally "eyebrow," but extended to "eyelash," then "eyelid" by association of the hair of the eyebrow with the hair of the eyelid, the eyebrows then becoming Old English oferbrua "overbrows" (early Middle English uvere breyhes or briges aboue þe eiges). The general word for "eyebrow" in Middle English was brew, breowen (c. 1200), from Old English bræw (West Saxon), *brew (Anglian), from Proto-Germanic *bræwi- "blinker, twinkler" (cognates: Old Frisian bre, Old Saxon brawa, Middle Dutch brauwe "eyelid," Old High German brawa"eyebrow," Old Norse bra "eyebrow," Gothic brahw "twinkle, blink," in phrase in brahwa augins "in the twinkling of an eye"). Old English bru is from Proto-Germanic *brus- "eyebrow" (source also of Old Norse brun), from PIE *bhru- "eyebrow" (cognates: Sanskrit bhrus "eyebrow," Greek ophrys, Old Church Slavonic bruvi, Lithuanian bruvis "brow," Old Irish bru "edge"). The -n- in the Old Norse (brun) and German (braune) forms of the word are from a genitive plural inflection. Words for "eyelid," "eyelash," and "eyebrow" changed about maddeningly in Old and Middle English (and in all the West Germanic languages). By 1530s, brow had been given an extended sense of "forehead," especially with reference to movements and expressions that showed emotion or attitude.
Example
- 1. The heavier brow and jaw of males might have developed to withstand blows from other males .
- 2. The boy had his fingers in his mouth again , and one of the men was wiping his brow .
- 3. The angels know that too many practical men eat their bread with the sweat of the dreamer 's brow .
- 4. While other passengers were looking a bit beady on the brow , he floated through the terminal looking like the coolest man at the airport .
- 5. In normal times this is a task that would furrow the brow ; now that the country 's boom is faltering , it risks causing a blinding headache .