- branch
- c.1300, "limb of a tree" (also used of things analogous to it, especially geographic features), from O.Fr. branche "branch, bough, twig; branch of a family" (12c.), from L.L. branca "footprint," later "a claw, paw," of unknown origin, probably from Gaulish. The connecting notion would be the shape. Replaced native bough. Meaning "local office of a business" is first recorded 1817, from earlier sense of "component part of a system" (1690s). The verb meaning "to diverge from a central point" is first attested 1799. Related: Branched; branching.