Other forms: braids
A braid is three or more lengths of hair woven over one another. A long braid, braid her hair, a French braid.
Braid is the standard American word and plait the British one for the same thing, though braid is now widely used in Britain too. Braiding is central to many African and African-diaspora hair traditions, with named styles and considerable skill involved. Braid is also decorative woven trim on a uniform: gold braid. Note braided, and braided river, which is a geographical term for one splitting into many channels.
1nounbraidLengths of hair woven over one another.
“Her mother wove her long hair into a single braid down her back.”
synonyms: plait
2noundecorativeDecorative woven trim.
“The general's jacket was covered in gold braid and medals.”
braid is a woven strand.
Also accepted in games: plait
Old English bregdan meant to move quickly, pull, weave or draw a sword — an unusually broad verb. Only the weaving sense survived into braid, and the quickness survives in upbraid, which means to pull somebody up.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰrēḱ-
Proto-Germanic
*bregdaną — to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing
Proto-West Germanic
*bregdan
Old English
breġdan — to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (wrestling), draw (sword), drag; bend, weave, braid, knit, join together; change color, vary, be transformed; bind, knot; move, be pulled; flash
Middle English
braiden
English, today
braid
Built from
From Middle English braiden, breided, bræiden, from Old English breġdan (“to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (wrestling), draw (sword), drag; bend, weave, braid, knit, join together; change color, vary, be transformed; bind, knot; move, be pulled; flash”), from Proto-West Germanic bregdan, from Proto-Germanic bregdaną (“to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰrēḱ-, bʰrēǵ- (“to shine, shimmer”). Cognate with Scots Scots brade, Scots braid (“to move quickly or suddenly”), stq braidje (“to knit”), West Frisian breidzje, Dutch breien (“to knit”), Low German breiden, German breiden, bar bretten (“to move quickly, twitch”), Icelandic bregða (“to move quickly, jerk”), Faroese bregða (“to move quickly, react swiftly; to draw (sword)”) and Faroese bregda (“to plaid, braid, twist, twine”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA