Braes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An area characterized by hilly terrain or slopes, often covered in grass and vegetation
2. A geographical region featuring rising ground or embankments, typically lush with flora
3. Referring to the banks or sides of a hill or hillside, often associated with pastoral landscapes

Etymology: Before it named a Scottish hillside, "brae" meant an eyebrow. The word traces back to a Proto-Germanic root for "eyebrow," which passed into Old Norse as "brá," meaning eyebrow or eyelash. English speakers borrowed the sense, probably by way of the brow of a hill, so that a rising bank of ground took on the name of the feature above the eye. In Middle English "bro" or "bra" meant the bank of a stream or the raised edge of a ditch or pit. The plural "braes" is the form you meet in Scottish place names and descriptions of river valleys, where it refers to the steep slopes rising from a river. English "brow" and Scots "bree," meaning forehead or eyebrow, are related words from the same root, so the brow of a face and the brow of a hill are doublets of one ancient image.

Synonyms: hillsides, slopes