brave

Etymology

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

• enPR: brāv, IPA^(key): /bɹeɪv/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪv

Adjective

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.

   • 1578–1579, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. [...] Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention‎, London: Imprinted for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, OCLC 84758486:

     For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 21:

     Do not fret, dear. You must be brave and strong, and help me through the horrible task. If you only knew what an effort it is to me to tell of this fearful thing at all, you would understand how much I need your help.

   • 1987, Michael Grumley, The Last Diary:

     […] he has been so brave, giving it all a dignity.

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.

Noun

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.

Verb

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.

References

Etymology 1

brava +‎ -e

Etymology 2

From Italian bravo.

Interjection

brave

1. bravo

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʁav/

• audio

  (file)

Adjective

brave (plural braves)

1. brave
2. honest

Noun

brave m (plural braves)

1. hero

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• baver

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aːvə

Adjective

brave

1. inflected form of brav

Adjective

brave f pl

1. Feminine plural of adjective bravo.

Etymology

From Late Latin *bravus.

Adjective

brave m, f

1. brave