An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Braue
Braue, feminine, ‘eyebrow,’ from the equivalent Middle High German brâ, brâwe, Old High German brâwa, feminine; a pre-Teutonic and more remotely old Aryan word, which was perhaps *brêwa in Gothic. The Old Gallic and Keltic brîva, identical with this word, signifies ‘bridge,’ and is especially important as proving the connection between these cognates and those of Brücke. Old High German brâwa (Aryan bhrêwâ) is related by gradation to Aryan bhrû, which is proved by Anglo-Saxon brû, English brow, Old Slovenian brŭvĭ, Sanscrit bhrû, Greek ὀ-φρύς. Compare further Old Icelandic brá, Old Low German brâha (for brâwa), Anglo-Saxon brœ̂w, masculine, and also perhaps Latin frons, ‘forehead.’ A widely diffused Aryan root. The Modern High German Braune has added to the stem the suffix n, which belonged to the declension of the weak form Braue (compare Biene); similarly Old Icelandic brún, corresponding to Anglo-Saxon brû, was formed from brû and the n of the weak declension (in Anglo-Saxon the genitive plural is brûna}. Braue, like the names of many limbs and parts of the body (see Fuß, Niere, Herz, Leber, Nase), originated in the primitively. Aryan period. The originally meaning, however, of the primitive Aryan bhrû-s (‘eye)-brow,’ is as difficult to discover as that of Herz. See also Brücke