Forms: 3–4 bren, 5 brenne, bryn(e, 6 brene, 5–7 branne, 3– bran. [a. OF. bren, bran; cf. Pr. and Sp. dial. bren, It. dial. brenno, brinnu, bren, bran. A Celtic etymology is usually alleged, but the words quoted, Bret. brenn, Welsh bràn, Gael. bran, appear to be adopted from Fr. and Eng. The sense of ‘filth, excrement,’ which belongs to bren or bran in mod.Fr., is not recorded in OFr.; if this were the primary sense, we might compare Welsh braen, Ir. brean, Gael. breun, which have in composition the sense of ‘manure.’]
1. The husk of wheat, barley, oats, or other grain, separated from the flour after grinding; in technical use, the coarsest portion of the ground husk (see quot. 1883).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15524. He wil þe sift nu if he mai, as man dos corn or bran.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Biblesw., in Wright, Voc., 155. Le furfre, bren.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 133. In stide of flour yet wol I yeue hem bren.
1464. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 254. My mastyr payd … for bred and brenne, vj.s.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, § 377. Made with … the bran of benes.
1620. Venner, Via Recta, i. 18. There is a kinde of abstersiue faculty in the bran.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour Italy, III. 344. They have an academy called La Crusca (a word which signifies bran, alluding to the sifting of the flour).
1883. Knowledge, 24 Aug., 120/1. The husk is separated in different degrees of coarseness; ‘bran,’ ‘pollard,’ & ‘sharps’ … bran being the coarsest.
b. fig. and transf. (Proverbial phrases, to sift to the bran, to take the flour and leave the bran.)
1577. Hellowes, Gueuara’s Fam. Ep., 237. You bestowed so much branne in the worlde.
1607. Shaks., Cor., I. i. 150. All From me do backe receiue the Flowre of all, And leaue me but the Bran.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœmiologia, 326. The Devils meale is halfe branne.
1654. Jer. Taylor, Real Pres., A j. Nothing which had not been already considered, and sifted to the bran.
1659. Gauden, Tears Ch., 182. The ignorant vulgar (who are the bran and coarser sort of people).
† 2. Scurf in the hair. Obs. (Cf. Gr. πίτυρον, L. furfur.)
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. lxxiii. 110. The lye … doth clense the heare from all bran or white scurffe.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1133. Full of branne or skurfe.
3. Comb., chiefly attrib. (containing bran as an ingredient), as bran-biscuit, -bread, -cake, -loaf, -mash, -poultice, -tea, -water; also bran-bath, a bath taken in water in which bran has been steeped; bran-boil (Calico Printing), a boiling of the fabrics in bran-water in order to remove coloring matters from them; bran-duster, a machine for ‘dusting’ or clearing away flour from bran; bran-stuffed ppl. a., stuffed with bran.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 463. There is no advantage in adding soap to the *bran boil.
c. 1425. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 657. Panis furfurius, *branbred.
1870. Daily News, 28 Oct., 5/1. An order that from that day forward no bread should be made in any of the bakeries of Metz except bran bread.
1862. F. Griffiths, Artill. Man. (ed. 9), 221. Let ample *bran mashes be given.
1838. I. Taylor, Home Educ., 265. Wooden, waxen, and *bran-stuffed personages that crowd … the drawing-room.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 463. The clearing process … by boiling in *bran-water.
