brand

Etymology

From Middle English brand, from Old English brand (“fire; flame; burning; torch; sword”), from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (“flame; flaming; fire-brand; torch; sword”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu- (“to bubble forth; brew; spew forth; burn”). Cognate with Scots brand, West Frisian brân (“fire”), Dutch brand, German Brand, Swedish brand (“blaze, fire”), Icelandic brandur, French brand (< Germanic).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɹand/
• (US) IPA^(key): /bɹænd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ænd

Noun

brand (plural brands)

1. (obsolete, rare) A conflagration; a flame.
   • Jasper Heywood

     Goe to prepare the maryages what neede the torchis light? be holde the towres of troy do shyne with brandes that blase full bright.

   • Jasper Heywood

     Is yet againe thy brest enflamde, / with brande of venus might

2. (archaic or poetic) A piece of burning wood or peat, or a glowing cinder.

   To burn something to brands and ashes.

   • Gavin Douglas

     The fearful brands and blazes of hot fire.

   • Palfrey

     Snatching a live brand from a wigwam, Mason threw it on a matted roof.

   • Washington Irving

     The brands of one of their fires were still smoking.

   • Jasper Heywood

     Or when amid the Grecians shippes, / he threw the brandes of fyre.

3. (Scotland, Northern England) A torch used for signaling.
4. (archaic) A sword.
   • John Milton

     Paradise, so late their happy seat, / Waved over by that flaming brand.

   • Alfred, Lord Tennyson

     The shattering trumpet shrilleth high, / The hard brands shiver on the steel, / The splinter'd spear-shafts crack and fly, / The horse and rider reel

5. A mark or scar made by burning with a hot iron, especially to mark cattle or to classify the contents of a cask.
6. A branding iron.
7. The symbolic identity, represented by a name and/or a logo, which indicates a certain product or service to the public.
   • 1999, Bernd Schmitt, Experiential marketing, page 39:

     The Amtrak brand revitalization approach represents one of the most ambitious, comprehensive, and systematic experiential marketing approaches I have ever seen.

   • 2000, Duane E. Knapp, The Brandmindset, page 67:

     In this way, every Citibanker becomes a brand manager and an ambassador of the Citibank brand. ... Indeed, the Citibank brand will "never sleep"

   • 2010, Gayle Soucek, Marshall Field's: The Store That Helped Build Chicago, page 136:

     Mr. Lundgren claimed that Federated had conducted a focus group and the analysis showed that most people were either indifferent to the name change or preferred the Macy's brand.

   • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8845:

     Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.

8. A specific product, service, or provider so distinguished.

   Some brands of breakfast cereal contain a lot of sugar.

9. (by extension) Any specific type or variety of something; a distinct style or manner.

   I didn't appreciate his particular brand of flattery.

   New Orleans brand sausage

   • 2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times‎:

     [O]ne minute this "Jihadi John" was struggling to get by, and get accepted, in drizzly England, unemployed with a mortgage to pay and a chip on his shoulder, and the next he stands in brilliant Levantine sunlight, where everything is clear and etched, at the vanguard of some Sunni Risorgimento intent on subjecting the world to its murderous brand of Wahhabi Islam.

10. Any minute fungus producing a burnt appearance in plants.

Verb

brand (third-person singular simple present brands, present participle branding, simple past and past participle branded)

1. (transitive) To burn the flesh with a hot iron, either as a marker (for criminals, slaves etc.) or to cauterise a wound.

   When they caught him, he was branded and then locked up.

2. (transitive) To mark (especially cattle) with a brand as proof of ownership.

   The ranch hands had to brand every new calf by lunchtime.

3. (transitive) To make an indelible impression on the memory or senses.

   Her face is branded upon my memory.

4. (transitive) To stigmatize, label (someone).

   He was branded a fool by everyone that heard his story.

   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 29686887 , chapter II:

     I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.

   • 2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1-6 Man City”, in BBC Sport:

     As Ferguson strode briskly towards the Stretford End at the final whistle, he will have been reflecting on the extent of the challenge now facing him from the club he once branded "noisy neighbours".

5. (transitive, marketing) To associate a product or service with a trademark or other name and related images.

   They branded the new detergent "Suds-O", with a nature scene inside a green O on the muted-colored recycled-cardboard box.

Related terms

• brand new
• rebrand

See also

Etymology

From Old Danish brand, from Old Norse brandr. Compare with German Brand.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /bran/, [b̥ʁanˀ]

Rhymes: -anˀ

Noun

brand c (singular definite branden, plural indefinite brande)

1. fire (large, destructive fire, as in a building)
2. smut (plant disease)

References

• “brand” in Den Danske Ordbog

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /brɑnt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑnt

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch brant, from Old Dutch *brand, from Proto-Germanic *brandaz.

Etymology 2

See etymology on the main entry.

Etymology

From Middle French brand, from Old French brant, from Frankish *brand, *brant (“firebrand, flaming sword”), from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (“firebrand, torch, sword”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu- (“to burn”). Cognate with Old High German brant (“fire, firebrand, burning iron”), Old English brand (“fire, flame, brand, torch, sword, weapon”), Old Norse brandr (“fire, firebrand, sword”). More at English brand.

Noun

brand m (plural brands)

1. (archaic) a sword

Further reading

• “brand” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Noun

brand

1. indefinite accusative singular of brandur

Etymology

Borrowed from English brand.

Noun

brand m (invariable)

1. brand (product symbol)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /brand/

Noun

brand m (plural brands)

1. (nautical) pitch (movement around the beam axis)

Etymology

From Old Norse brandr.

Noun

brand

1. fire (occurrence of fire in a certain place)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /brɑnd/

Noun

brand m

1. firebrand; torch

Etymology

From Old Swedish brander, from Old Norse brandr, from Proto-Germanic *brandaz, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu-.

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Noun

brand c

1. accidental, uncontrollable fire

See also

• brasa
• eld
• eldsvåda
• vådeld
• vårdkase