Brees

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A thin Scottish soup or liquid made by boiling meat, fish or vegetables in water
2. The savoury juice or broth that comes out of cooked meat, traditionally used in Scottish cooking
3. Liquid broth drawn from simmered meat or vegetables, a term found in older Scots dialect

Etymology: The word "brees" is the plural of "bree," and the surprise lies in how its meaning drifted from the eye to the kitchen pot. Old English "brēġ" meant "eyelid," and the English word "brow" is related to it. A separate Old English word, "brīw," meant "pottage" or "porridge," and it was this second word that gave Middle English "bre," a broth or gravy. Scholars consider the two words possibly connected, but the soup sense comes from the porridge word. The "brīw" line can be traced back to a Proto-West Germanic root meaning "porridge" or "mash," which also gave German "Brei" and Dutch "brij," both still meaning a soft, mushy mixture. A less likely alternative links the word to German "Brühe," broth, but that verb is not attested in English, which weakens the case. Both routes lead back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to boil" or "to brew," the same ancestor that produced English "broth" and "brew." So a Scottish thin soup shares its ancestry with the English word "broth," even though the two words took different paths into English.