[a. F. brave, not an original Fr. word, but adapted from It. bravo brave, gallant, fine: cf. Sp. and Pg. bravo, Pr. and Cat. brau. Ulterior derivation uncertain. Nearly all the Eng. senses may have been adopted from French. Cf. BRAW.
(Prof. Storm would associate bravo (in Sp. also bravio) with OIt. braido, brado wild, savage, which is also a sense of Sp. and Pg. bravo; cf. Pr. braidiu fiery, spirited (horse). These he would refer to a Latin type *brabidus, formed from rabidus mad, fierce, of the existence of which there appears to be other evidence. See Romania, 1876, p. 170. A more recent conjecture (Romania, XIII. 110) tries to derive it from barbarus, but this does not suit Pr. brau.)]
A. adj.
1. Of persons and their attributes: Courageous, daring, intrepid, stout-hearted (as a good quality).
1485. Caxton, Paris & V., Prol. It is very good to relate the brave deeds.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. ii. 134. A brauer Souldier neuer couched Launce.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., II. xviii. 118. Innocence and Independance make a brave spirit.
1644. Milton, Educ. (1738), 137. High hopes of living to be brave men, and worthy Patriots.
1732. Pope, Mor. Ess., I. 115. Who combats bravely is not therefore brave. He dreads a Death-bed like the meanest slave.
1769. Junius Lett., iii. 16. A brave man has no rules to follow but the dictates of his courage.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, II. 233. For six days they made a brave defence.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 157. Extolled by the great body of Churchmen as if he had been the bravest and purest of martyrs.
b. absol. The brave (now only pl.).
1697. Dryden, Alexander’s Feast, 15. None but the brave deserves the fair.
1726. Gay, Fables, I. i. 33. The brave Love mercy, and delight to save.
1782. Cowper, Loss Roy. George, 1. Toll for the brave! The brave that are no more.
1852. Tennyson, Wellington, viii. To glorious burial slowly borne Follow’d by the brave of other lands.
2. Finely dressed; = Sc. BRAW; splendid, showy, grand, fine, handsome. (Rare in 18th c.; in 19th c. apparently a literary revival, or adopted from dialect speech.)
1568. Like will to L., in Hazl., Dodsl., III. 312. To go more gayer and more brave, Than doth a lord.
1570. Levins, Manip., 42. Braue, splendidus.
a. 1593. H. Smith, Wks. (1866–7), I. 150. The lilies which are braver than Solomon.
1612. Heywood, Apol. Actors, Author to Bk. One man is ragged, and another brave.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, I. 11. At length he came to most braue and fayre houses.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 257. Lord Montague’s brave House in Bloomsbury.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. xvi. Now might you see the tartans brave.
1855. Browning, Bp. Blougram’s Apol. His coat … Brave with the needlework of noodledom.
3. loosely, as a general epithet of admiration or praise: Worthy, excellent, good, ‘capital,’ ‘fine,’ ‘famous,’ etc.; ‘an indeterminate word, used to express the superabundance of any valuable quality in men or things’ (J.). arch. (Cf. BRAW a.)
a. of persons.
1600. Shaks., A. Y. L., III. iv. 43. O that’s a braue man, hee writes braue verses, speakes braue words.
1603. Mournef. Dittie, in Shaks. C. Praise, 56. You Poets all, brave Shakspeare, Johnson, Greene.
1673. Ess. Educ. Gentlewom., 29. Zeuxes and Timanthes were brave Painters.
1679. Penn, Addr. Prot., I. § 5 (1692), 20. Many brave Families have been ruin’d by a Gamester.
1740. J. Clarke, Educ. Youth (ed. 3), 57. His Son is a brave Scholar.
b. of things.
1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1843), 102. Nowe are the braue and golden dayes.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, V. iv. 130. Ile deuise thee braue punishments for him. Ibid. (1605), Lear, III. ii. 79. This is a braue night to coole a Curtizan.
1653. Walton, Angler, 104. We wil make a brave Breakfast with a piece of powdered Bief.
1798. Southey, Eng. Eclog., ii. Here she found … a brave fire to thaw her. Ibid. (1834), Doctor, xxii. 51. Knowledge is a brave thing.
1850. Mrs. Browning, Poems, I. 5. Here’s a brave earth to sin and suffer on!
4. Comb., chiefly parasynthetic, as brave-hearted, -horsed, -minded, -sensed, -spirited, -spiritedness.
1617. Hieron, Wks., II. 313. Termes of Worth, of Gallantrie, of Braue-spiritednesse, and the like.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 636. That braue-spirited politicke-wise Lord.
1663. in Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1829), 12. The earl of Angus … and thirty other brave-horsed gentlemen, came to the Bog.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, iii. 70. The whole people mourns … for the death of a brave-hearted man.
5. quasi-adv. = BRAVELY. (Now only poet.)
1596. Spenser, F. Q., I. iv. 8. There sat most braue embellished … A mayden queene.
1721. Strype, Eccl. Mem., I. I. xlvi. 345. Noble and brave-built structures.
1808. Scott, Marm., I. x. The trumpets flourish’d brave.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 184. Better housed, or braver clad.
B. sb. [in sense 1, directly from F. brave.]
1. A brave man, a warrior, soldier: since 1800 applied chiefly to warriors among the North American Indians [after the French in N. America].
1601. Chester, Love’s Mart. (1878), 55. We haue no cause to feare their forreine braues.
a. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, III. 463. Advance Thy braues against his single power.
1763. Churchill, Proph. Fam., Poems I. 118. The race of Roman braves Thought it not worth their while to make us slaves.
1823. Byron, Island, III. ii. The wave Is hurl’d down headlong, like the foremost brave.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville (1849), 96. The chiefs leading the van, the braves following in a long line, painted and decorated.
1841. Catlin, N. Amer. Ind. (1844), I. vi. 35. A Blackfoot brave whose portrait I have painted.
b. A bravo, bully: a hired assassin. Obs. or arch.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. IV. (1641), 187/1. Ador’d of Flatterers, or Softlings, Wantons, Braves and Loyterers.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 275. There are certaine desperate and resolute villaines in Venice called Braves.
1649. Milton, Eikon., 25. Happy times, when Braves and Hacksters were thought the fittest to defend the King.
1675. Dryden, Aurengz., I. i. 96. Morat’s too insolent, too much a Brave.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 277. A brave (or fellow hired to revenge a quarrel of another), sicarius.
1865. Sir K. James, Tasso, II. XI. xxxvi.
| Why not come forth, ye sneaking, skulking braves, | |
| And open battle, like Arganté, dare? |
2. A bravado. arch.
1590. Greene, Never too late (1600), 52. Suppose … that beautie hath given him the braue.
1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iii. IV. (1641), 182/1. Marcheth amain to give the Town a brave.
1600. Heywood, 1 Edw. IV., Wks. 1874, I. 54. Leaue off these idle braues of thine.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, I. 33. Bitter was the Brave which railing Rabsheca sent to holy Hezekiah.
1840. Browning, Sordello, V. 432. A whole life’s braves Should somehow be made good.
1878. Simpson, Sch. Shaks., I. 75. Stucley waited about the court and amused the Councillors with his braves and brags.
† 3. Finery, splendor = BRAVERY 3. Obs.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., XI. lxvii. 285. Sixe score Concubines, that seem’d so many Queenes for braue.
† C. interj. [Cf. BRAVO.] Capital! Excellent! Bravo! Obs. or dial.
a. 1593. Marlowe, Jew of M., II. ii. Oh, brave, master! I worship your nose for this.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, XV. ii. O brave!… my cousin has you, I find.
1862. Barnes, Rhymes Dorset Dial., I. 148. O brave! What wages do ’e meän to gi’e?
