braire

From Vulgar Latin *bragiō, from Gaulish *bragu (compare Old Irish braigid (“to flatulate”)), from Proto-Celtic *bragyeti (“to flatulate”). Cognate with English bray.

• IPA^(key): /bʁɛʁ/

• Audio

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braire (defective) (defective)

1. bray (to make the cry of a donkey)
2. (figuratively, by extension) to shout
3. (Belgium, Northern France, figuratively, by extension) to cry, to weep

This verb traditionally has no past historic or imperfect subjunctive. They would be formed on a -bray- root: *je brayis, *que nous brayissions etc. Forms using the ‘a’ endings of verbs in -er are now used when there is an unavoidable need to use these forms. The root -brais- was used instead of -bray- in the 18th century, and remains in Swiss and Savoy dialects.

braire m (plural braires)

1. (obsolete) bray (noise made by a donkey)

• braiment, braîment
• braiement

• “braire” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• abrier, barrie

• braer, brere

braire

1. (of an animal) to bray
2. (less common, of a person) to cry out; to shout out

• Middle French: braire, brere, brayre
  • French: braire
• → Middle English: brayen
  • → English: bray