{"id":12882,"date":"2016-09-17T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T11:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/blog\/?p=12882"},"modified":"2016-09-17T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2016-09-17T11:16:14","slug":"a-bit-of-a-breeze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=12882","title":{"rendered":"A bit of a breeze"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the words that came up at the French conversation group this week was brise<\/strong> (breeze), which appears in the following expressions:<\/p>\n

– pare-brise = windscreen \/ windshield
\n– brise matinale = early breeze
\n– brise insulaire = island breeze
\n– brise de mer = sea breeze
\n– brise de terre = land breeze<\/p>\n

The French word brise<\/em> and the English word breeze come possibly from the Old Spanish briza<\/em> (cold northeast wind), which was used from the 1560s in West Indies and the Spanish Main to mean a “northeast trade wind”, and then a “fresh wind from the sea”. Breeze came to mean a “gentle or light wind” from the 1620s, and something easy from the 1920s in the USA.<\/p>\n

Alternatively the English word breeze might come from is from East Frisian brisen<\/em> (to blow fresh and strong), or the Saterland Frisian briese<\/em> \u200e(breeze) or the Dutch bries<\/em> \u200e(breeze).<\/p>\n

Apparently as well as being a light, gentle wind, a breeze can be:<\/p>\n

– Any wind blowing across a cricket match, whatever its strength.
\n– Any activity that is easy, not testing or difficult.
\n– Ashes and residue of coal or charcoal, usually from a furnace.
\n– An excited or ruffled state of feeling; a flurry of excitement; a disturbance; a quarrel.<\/p>\n

Sources: Online Etymology Dictionary<\/a>, Wiktionary<\/a> and Reverso<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the words that came up at the French conversation group this week was brise (breeze), which appears in the following expressions: – pare-brise = windscreen \/ windshield – brise matinale = early breeze – brise insulaire = island breeze – brise de mer = sea breeze – brise de terre = land breeze […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,111,10,77,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-french","category-language","category-welsh","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12882\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}