Forms: 4 brahun, 4–6 braun(e, 4 brawen, 4–7 brawne, (5 browne), 6 brawyne, 5– brawn. [a. OF. braon, braoun (braion) fleshy part, muscle, particularly the most fleshy part of the hind leg, originally a part suitable for roasting, corresp. to Pr. bradon; ad. WGer. brâdo, f. brâdan to roast (see BREDE v.1). The specific sense ‘boar’s flesh’ is exclusively of English development, and characteristic of English habits.]
1. Fleshy part, muscle; esp. the rounded muscles of the arm, leg and thumb.
c. 1325. Gloss. W. de Biblesworth, in Wright, Voc., 143. En la jambe [the caalf] est la sure [brahun]
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1280. Hise lymes grete, hise brawnes harde and stronge.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxvii. (1495), 136. The armes ben … coueryd wyth skinne brawne and strenges with flesshe amonge.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 675. Take oxen yonge … in brawnes rising greet.
1568. Jacob & Esau, II. ii. in Hazl., Dodsley, II. 209. My teeth I can scarcely charm From gnawing away the brawn of my very arm.
1608. Middleton, Mad World, II. vii. Is not your honour sore about the brawn of the arm?
1617. Markham, Caval., II. 49. Your thombe close vpon the reynes, with the brawne thereof turned toward the pomell of your saddle.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XVI. 374. His blow … transpierced his thigh, Tore all the brawn.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 360. All laymen who are allowed this privilege shall be burnt with a hot iron in the brawn of the left thumb.
1865. Holland, Plain T., viii. 27. God makes a man of bone, brawn and blood.
b. spec. The arm, the calf of the leg, the buttock.
1382. Wyclif, Job xxii. 9. The brawnes [1388 schuldres; Vulg. lacertos; 1611 arms] of moderles childer thou tobrosedist.
1581. Nuce, Seneca’s Octavia, 175. Sir Brutus sterne, his brawnes and armes did dight, His soueraigne liege to slayne by force and might.
1607. Shaks., Cor., IV. v. 126. Once more to hew thy Target from thy Brawne.
1864. Glasgow Her., 24 Sept., 3/4. Personally, stiffish a little, with a peculiar sensation about the brawns.
c. transf. and fig.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 470. The outside … of the leaf hath in it certain strings, sinues or veins, brawns and ioynts.
1883. H. George, Progr. & Pov., 388. Liberty is … the brawn of national strength, the spirit of national independence.
† 2. The muscle or flesh of animals as food.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1631. Suche a brawne of a best … Ne such sydes of a swyn, segh he never are.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVI. 67. Braun and blod of þe goos, bacon and colhoppes.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 430. Then take the braune of hennes, or of capons, and bray hom.
1513. Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk. (1868), 279. Bytwene the foure membres laye the brawne of the capon.
1519. Horman, Vulg., 164 b. He hath eate all the braune of the lopster.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 297. While one loues nothing but the leg [of a fowl], another likes and praises the white brawne alone.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 150. Mingling the Brawns of Peacocks with Porks Flesh.
1656. Shepherd’s Kal., xxvii. In the winter shepheards do eat beef … Brawn of Harts, Hinds and all kind of venison.
b. In Coverdale and the ‘Great Bible,’ used to render Heb. [Hebrew] ‘fat,’ where Geneva, 1611, and Rev. V. have ‘grease.’ (The orig. meaning is uncertain. The Septuagint, Vulgate, Wyclif, Douay, following a different pointing of the Heb., [Hebrew], render ‘is curdled like milk.’)
1535. Coverdale, Ps. cxviii. [cxix.] 70. Their herte is as fat as brawne.
3. spec. The flesh of the boar. (Often defined as ‘brawn of a boar,’ even in 16th c.) In recent use, the flesh of a boar (or swine), collared, boiled, and pickled or potted. [With the restriction of application we may compare the restriction of bacon, a deriv. of back, to the cured back and sides of the pig.]
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIII. 62. Wombe-cloutes and wylde braune & egges yfryed with grece.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Franklin’s T., 526. Brawen of the tusked swyn.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 48. Brawne of a bore, aprina.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., 89. Lay furthe of oure store, Lo here browne of a bore.
1570. Levins, Manip., 44. Brawne, caro callata, aprina, callum.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb. (1623), 129. The best feeding of a Swine for Larde, or a Boare for Brawne.
1641. Milton, Animadv. (1851), 200. Is a man therefore bound … at noon to Brawn, or Beefe?
a. 1704. T. Brown, Pleas. Ep., Wks. 1730, I. 110. Private deliberations over brawn and guest-ale.
1781. Westm. Mag., II. 47. This turban for my head is collar’d brawn!
1828. Southey, Ep. A. Cunningham. Whether ham, bacon, sausage, souse or brawn.
4. transf. A boar (or swine) as fattened for the table. dial. Cf. BACON.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1095. Brokbrestede as a brawne, with brustils fulle large.
1601. Ord. R. Househ. (1790), 288. The Serjeant of the Larder hath for his fee … the feete cut off at the first joynt of every braune spent in the Queenes house.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Gt. Eater Kent, Wks. I. 144/2. What say you to the Leafe or Flecke of a Brawne new kild?
1705. Susanna Wesley, in Eliza Clarke, Life (1886), 55. To spread a report that my own brawn (boar) did this mischief.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, IX. 258. With the flesh of sheep And of a fatted brawn.
1807. Stagg, Poems, 18. Loud as brawns war snowran.
5. Hardened or thickened skin, the result of continued friction; also fig. L. callum.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, IX. lxvii. 744. The hard skinne or brawne that is in the handes or feete, which is gotten by labour.
1617. Hieron, Wks., 1619–20, II. 374. Corsiues for the eating out that dead flesh which is in their hearts, & for the paring off that brawne which is growne vpon them.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, II. xiv. (1840), 69. Witness the brawn on his hands and knees made with continual praying.
1639. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unl., xxv. § 320. A brawn [thick skin] from hardning.
6. Attrib. and Comb., as brawn-bands, -buttock; brawn-fed, -like adjs.; † brawn-fallen a., shrunken in flesh, thin, skinny.
1653. Plat, Gard. Eden, 67. Binding the bark … with a packthred, or rather with *brawn-bands, will keep roses long from blowing.
1601. Shaks., All’s Well, II. ii. 19. The barbers chair … fits … the *brawn-buttock, or any buttock.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 127. Were not Milo his armes *brawne-fallen for want of wrastlyng.
1606. Chapman, Gentl. Usher, Plays, 1873, I. 288. Leane and brawn-falne; I and scarsly sound.
1703. Farquhar, Inconstant, I. (D.). For our women here in France, they are such lean *brawn-fall’n jades.
1567. Drant, Hor. Epist., xv. E vj. That I may cum *brawne fed.
1849–52. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 1393/2. The surrounding cellular texture … puts on a *brown-like character.
