Online Etymology Dictionary

breeding (n.): late 14c., "hatching, incubation;" also "formation, development, growth," verbal noun from breed (v.). Meaning "good manners" is from 1590s.
breeze (n.): 1560s, "north or northeast wind," from Old Spanish briza "cold northeast wind;" in West Indies and Spanish Main, the sense shifting to "northeast trade wind," then "fresh wind from the sea." English sense of "gentle or light wind" is from 1620s. An alternative possibility is that the English word is from East Frisian brisen "to blow fresh and strong." The slang for "something easy" is American English, c.1928.
breeze (v.): "move briskly," 1904, from breeze (n.). Related: Breezed; breezing.
breezeway (n.): 1904, American English, from breeze (n.) + way.
breezy (adj.): 1718, from breeze (n.) + -y (2). Figurative sense "fresh, easygoing, light, airy" is from 1870. Related: Breezily; breeziness.
brekekekex: c.1600, from Greek (Aristophanes), echoic of the croaking of frogs.
Bremen: city in Germany, from Old Saxon bremo "edge" (related to English brim (n.)), in reference to its site on a river bank.
Bren: type of machine gun used by the British army in WWII, 1937, short for Bren gun, coined from first letters of Brno, Czechoslovakia, and Enfield, near London. The patent was purchased in Brno, and the gun was manufactured in Enfield.
Brenner Pass: historical route over the Alps between Germany and Italy, from Breuni, name of a people who lived near there, perhaps Celtic.
brer: in Brer Rabbit, etc., 1881, Joel Chandler Harris' representation of U.S. Southern black pronunciation of brother.
Brest: city in France, from Celtic, from bre "hill." The city in Belarus is from Slavic berest "elm." Part of Lithuania from 1319, it thus was known, for purposes of distinguishing them, as Brest Litovsk until 1921.
brethren (n.): alternative plural of brother (q.v.); predominant c.1200-1600s, but surviving now only in religious usage.
Breton (n.): "native or language of Brittany," late 14c., from French form of Briton (q.v.).
breve (n.): mid-15c., musical notation indicating two whole notes, from Latin breve (adj.) "short" in space or time (see brief (adj.)). The grammatical curved line placed over a vowel to indicate "shortness" (1540s) is from the same source.
brevet (n.): mid-14c., from Old French brievet "letter, note, piece of paper; papal indulgence" (13c.), diminutive of bref "letter, note" (see brief (adj.)). Army sense is from 1680s.
brevet (v.): 1839, from French breveter, from brevet (see brevet (n.)). Related: Breveted; breveting.
breviary (n.): 1540s, "brief statement;" sense of "short prayer book used by Catholic priests" is from 1610s, from Latin breviarium "summary," noun use of neuter of adjective breviarius "abridged," from breviare "to shorten, abbreviate," from brevis "short" (see brief (adj.)).
brevity (n.): c.1500, from Latin brevitatem (nominative brevitas) "shortness" in space or time, from brevis "short" (see brief (adj.)).
brew (v.): Old English breowan "to brew" (class II strong verb, past tense breaw, past participle browen), from Proto-Germanic *breuwan "to brew" (cf. Old Norse brugga, Old Frisian briuwa, Middle Dutch brouwen, Old High German briuwan, German brauen "to brew"), from PIE root *bhreue- "to bubble, boil, effervesce" (cf. Sanskrit bhurnih "violent, passionate," Greek phrear "well, spring, cistern," Latin fervere "to boil, foam," Thracian Greek brytos "fermented liquor made from barley," Russian bruja "current," Old Irish bruth "heat;" Old English beorma "yeast;" Old High German brato "roast meat"), the original sense thus being "make a drink by boiling." Related: Brewed; brewing.
brew (n.): c.1500, "a brewed beverage," from brew (v.).
brewery (n.): 1650s (but perhaps from c.1200 as a surname element), from brew (v.) + -ery. Old English had breawern in this sense (from aern "house;" see barn), and brewhouse was the more common word through 18c.
brewhouse (n.): late 14c.; late 13c. as a surname, from brew (v.) + house (n.).
brewster (n.): early 13c. as a surname, probably originally "a female brewer" (even though most of the early surnames on the records are of men), from brew (v.) + -ster. Cf. Old French braceresse "female brewer," Middle English name Clarice le Breweres on the 1312 Colchester Borough Court Rolls.
briar (n.): see brier (n.1).
Briareus: hundred-handed giant in Greek mythology, from Greek briaros "strong, stout."
bribe (n.): late 14c., "thing stolen," from Old French bribe "bit, piece, hunk; morsel of bread given to beggars" (14c., cf. Old French bribeor "vagrant, beggar"), from briber, brimber "to beg," a general Romanic word (Gamillscheg marks it as Rotwelsch, i.e. "thieves' jargon"), of uncertain origin; old sources suggest Celtic (cf. Breton breva "to break"). Shift of meaning to "gift given to influence corruptly" is by mid-15c.
bribe (v.): late 14c., "pilfer, steal," also "practice extortion," from Old French briber "go begging," from bribe (see bribe (n.)). Related: Bribed; bribing.
bribery (n.): late 14c., "theft, robbery, swindling, pilfering;" see bribe (n.) + -ery. Specifically of magistrates taking money for corrupted services from mid-16c.; sense of "offering of a bribe" is from 1560s.
bric-a-brac (n.): 1840, from obsolete French à bric et à brac (16c.) "at random, any old way," a nonsense phrase.
brick (n.): early 15c., from Old French briche "brick," probably from a Germanic source akin to Middle Dutch bricke "a tile," literally "a broken piece," from the verbal root of break (v.). Meaning "a good, honest fellow" is from 1840, probably on notion of squareness (e.g. fair and square) though most extended senses of brick (and square) applied to persons in English are not meant to be complimentary. Brick wall in the figurative sense of "impenetrable barrier" is from 1886.
brick (v.): "to wall up with bricks," 1640s, from brick (n.). Related: Bricked; bricking.
brickbat (n.): mid-16c., piece of brick (half or less) used as a missile, from brick (n.) + bat (n.1). Figurative use, of comments, insults, etc., is from 1640s.
bridal (adj.): mid-15c., transferred use of noun bridal "wedding feast," Old English brydealo "marriage feast," from bryd ealu, literally "bride ale" (see bride + ale); second element later confused with suffix -al (1), especially after c.1600.
bride (n.): Old English bryd "bride, betrothed or newly married woman," from Proto-Germanic *bruthiz "woman being married" (cf. Old Frisian breid, Dutch bruid, Old High German brut, German Braut "bride"). Gothic cognate bruþs, however, meant "daughter-in-law," and the form of the word borrowed from Old High German into Medieval Latin (bruta) and Old French (bruy) had only this sense. In ancient Indo-European custom, the married woman went to live with her husband's family, so the only "newly wed female" in such a household would have been the daughter-in-law. On the same notion, some trace the word itself to the PIE verbal root *bru- "to cook, brew, make broth," as this likely was the daughter-in-law's job.
bridegroom (n.): Old English brydguma "suitor," from bryd "bride" (see bride) + guma "man" (cf. Old Norse gumi, Old High German gomo, cognate with Latin homo "man;" see homunculus). Ending altered 16c. by folk etymology after groom (n.) "groom, boy, lad" (q.v.).

Common Germanic compound (cf. Old Saxon brudigumo, Old Norse bruðgumi, Old High German brutigomo, German Bräutigam), except in Gothic, which used bruþsfaþs, literally "bride's lord."
bridesmaid (n.): 1550s, bridemaid, from bride + maid. The -s- is excrescent but began to appear by 1794 and the form with it predominated by the end of the 19c.
bridewell (n.): "prison," 1550s, from Bridewell, house of correction in London, originally a royal lodging (given by Edward VI for a hospital, later converted to a prison) near Bride's Well, short for St. Bridget's Well.
bridge (n.1): "causeway over a ravine or river," Old English brycge, from Proto-Germanic *brugjo (cf. Old Saxon bruggia, Old Norse bryggja, Old Frisian brigge, Dutch brug, Old High German brucca, German Brücke), from PIE root *bhru "log, beam," hence "wooden causeway" (cf. Gaulish briva "bridge," Old Church Slavonic bruvuno "beam," Serbian brv "footbridge"). For vowel evolution, see bury. Meaning "bony upper part of the nose" is from early 15c.; of stringed instruments from late 14c.
bridge (v.): Old English brycgian "to bridge, make a causeway," from bridge (n.). Related: Bridged; bridging.
bridge (n.2): card game, 1886 (perhaps as early as 1843), an alteration of biritch, but the source and meaning of that are obscure. "Probably of Levantine origin, since some form of the game appears to have been long known in the Near East" [OED]. One guess is that it represents Turkish *bir-üç "one-three," because one hand is exposed and three are concealed. The game also was known early as Russian whist (attested in English from 1839).
Bridget: fem. proper name, from Irish Brighid, fire goddess, from brigh "strength," from Celtic *brig-o-, from PIE *bhrgh-nt- "high, mighty," from root *bhrgh- "high" (see borough).
bridle (n.): Old English bridel "bridle, rein, curb, restraint," related to bregdan "move quickly," from Proto-Germanic *bregdilaz (see braid (v.)).
bridle (v.): "to control, dominate," c.1200, from Old English bridlian "to fit with a bridle," from bridel (see bridle (n.)). Meaning "to throw up the head" (as a horse does when reined in) is from mid-15c. Related: Bridled; bridling.
Brie (n.): type of soft cheese, 1848, from name of district in department Seine-et-Marne, southeast of Paris, famous for its cheeses. The name is from Gaulish briga "hill, height."
brief (adj.): late 13c., from Latin brevis (adj.) "short, low, little, shallow," from PIE *mregh-wi-, from root *mregh-u- "short" (cf. Greek brakhys "short," Old Church Slavonic bruzeja "shallow places, shoals," Gothic gamaurgjan "to shorten").
brief (n.): from Latin breve (genitive brevis), noun derivative of adjective brevis (see brief (adj.)) which came to mean "letter, summary," specifically a letter of the pope (less ample and solemn than a bull), and thus came to mean "letter of authority," which yielded the modern, legal sense of "summary of the facts of a case" (1630s).
brief (v.): "to give instructions or information to," 1866; originally "to instruct by a brief" (1862), from brief (n.). Related: Briefed; briefing.
briefcase (n.): "portable folding case for holding papers," 1926, from brief (n.) in the paper sense + case (n.2).
briefing (n.): "fact or situation of giving preliminary instructions," 1910 (but popularized by World War II pre-flight conferences), verbal noun from brief (v.).
briefly (adv.): c.1300, from brief (adj.) + -ly (2). As an introduction to a statement, "in short," recorded from 1510s.