Bree

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A savory liquid dish made by simmering meat, vegetables, or other ingredients in water or stock
2. A hot soup or broth prepared by cooking ingredients such as meat or vegetables in liquid
3. A warming soup made from the slow cooking of ingredients like meat or vegetables in broth

Etymology: Scottish "bree" is a word with two unrelated origins that happen to land on the same spelling. The sense most English speakers meet first, "broth" or "gravy," traces back to Old English "brīw," meaning "pottage" or "porridge." Its ancestor is a Proto-West Germanic term for porridge or mash, which also gave German "Brei" and Dutch "brij." Its deeper root is an Indo-European word meaning "to boil," the same source behind "broth" and "brew." The other sense, "eyelid" or in Scots "eyebrow," comes from a separate Old English word, "brēġ" (also "brǣw"), descended from a Proto-Germanic form. It is cognate with German "Braue" and Dutch "wenkbrauw," and it is apparently related to "brow." Because the two meanings developed separately, nothing in the word's form reveals that a dish and a facial feature share a spelling.

Synonyms: broth, soup