Obs. or dial. Also 6 branke, 7 branck. [Derivation unknown.]
Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum).
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb. (1586), 40 b. You may sowe Bucke, or Branke, as they call it.
1677. Lond. Gaz., No. 1227/4. A Dutch built Hoy, laden with 14 Tuns of Buck, or Branck.
1730. T. Cox, Magna Brit., V. 275. The Eastern parts … produce Plenty of Branke and Hemp.
1815. W. Johnson, trans. Beckmann’s Hist. Invent. (1846), I. 430. It is grown [in] Norfolk and Suffolk, where it is called brank.
[The plant was introduced from Asia in 14th or 15th c. perh. by the Turks; cf. its various names, L. frumentum Turcicum, Ger. heide(n)kraut, F. blé sarrasin, Pol. poganka, Boh. pohanka lit. ‘heathen, Turkish.’ There is a certain similarity of sound between the last and brank, but nothing is known of any connection.]
Brank sb.2 see BRANKS1.
