bread
Food made from flour, water, and yeast, mixed and baked.
Etymology
From Old English brēad, from Proto-Germanic *braudą, likely from PIE *bʰrewh₁- "to boil, brew, cook." The original Germanic sense may have been "a piece of fermented food" — bread rises through fermentation just as beer brews. Before this word prevailed, the common Old English word for bread was hlāf, which survives in "loaf."
The Journey: *bʰrewh₁- → bread
*bʰrewh₁-
*braudą
brēad
bred, bread
bread
Cognates Across Languages
These words in other languages descend from the same PIE root *bʰrewh₁-. They are not borrowings but independent inheritances from a common ancestor.
| Language | Word |
|---|---|
| Dutch | brood |
| German | Brot |
| Swedish | bröd |
| Old Norse | brauð |
| Old English | hlāf (loaf) |
Did You Know?
The word "lord" comes from Old English hlāfweard — literally "loaf-ward," the guardian of the bread. And "lady" from hlǣfdīge — "loaf-kneader." Bread was so central that social rank was defined by your relationship to it.