entry
brazil
/brəˈzɪl/Red dye wood, Brazil nut, or coal seam
From Proto-Indo-European *bhreu- (to boil).
from PIE root *bhreu- "to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn," and so called for resemblance of color to a glowing ember....
from Medieval Latin brasilium , Old French bresil , which probably is related to brese "embers," and like it
Word Ancestry
from PIE root *bhreu- "to boil, bubble, effervesce, burn," and so called for resemblance of color to a glowing ember....
from Medieval Latin brasilium , Old French bresil , which probably is related to brese "embers," and like it
Picture a medieval dyer holding a splinter of imported wood over a vat: the color it released was so fiercely red that people connected it with embers glowing in a fire. The trail probably runs from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *bhreu-, “to boil, bubble, burn,” through Medieval Latin brasilium and Old French bresil. But there is a twist: because the wood reached Europe from India, some scholars suspect the European explanation may be folk etymology, perhaps disguising an Arabic or Asian trade name. When Pedro Álvares Cabral reached South America in 1500, the place was initially called Santa Cruz; within a decade, its profitable red dyewood had encouraged mapmakers to call it terra de brasil, and Brazil prevailed by the 1550s. A separate medieval mystery, Hy Brasil—the phantom island supposedly lying west of Ireland—may have borrowed the same red-wood name, leaving Brazil surrounded by both trade history and Atlantic legend.
The Story
Picture a medieval dyer holding a splinter of imported wood over a vat: the color it released was so fiercely red that people connected it with embers glowing in a fire. The trail probably runs from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European root *bhreu-, “to boil, bubble, burn,” through Medieval Latin brasilium and Old French bresil. But there is a twist: because the wood reached Europe from India, some scholars suspect the European explanation may be folk etymology, perhaps disguising an Arabic or Asian trade name. When Pedro Álvares Cabral reached South America in 1500, the place was initially called Santa Cruz; within a decade, its profitable red dyewood had encouraged mapmakers to call it terra de brasil, and Brazil prevailed by the 1550s. A separate medieval mystery, Hy Brasil—the phantom island supposedly lying west of Ireland—may have borrowed the same red-wood name, leaving Brazil surrounded by both trade history and Atlantic legend.
Modern Usage
An internet-joke label for Brazil in comment sections, sometimes involving off-duty-cop jokes.
Kin & Kindred
From '*bhreu-'·to boil, bubble, burn; by association, glowing red
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Free Dictionary
Urban Dictionary
Wikipedia
Wiktionary