Other forms: browsers
A browser is the program you open the internet with. Open your browser, browser history, a browser tab.
It is one of the most complicated programs on any machine, because it has to render anything anybody publishes and run their code safely at the same time. Only a handful of engines exist and most browsers use one of them. Note browse, which first meant an animal feeding on shoots and leaves.
1nounbrowserThe program you open the internet with.
“If the page won't load, try clearing your browser's history and restarting it.”
browser is a program.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰrews- — to swell, sprout
Proto-Germanic
*brustiz — bud, shoot
Frankish
*brust — shoot, bud
Old French
brouster
Middle English
browsen
English
browse
English, today
browser
Built from
From browse + -er. browse comes from Middle English browsen, from Old French brouster, broster (“to nibble off buds, sprouts, and bark; browse”), from brost (“a sprout, shoot, bud”), from a gem source, perhaps Frankish brust (“shoot, bud”), from Proto-Germanic brustiz (“bud, shoot”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰrews- (“to swell, sprout”). Cognate with bar Bross, Brosst (“a bud”), Old Saxon brustian (“to sprout”). a doublet of brut and breast and brush.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA