An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Brot
Brot, neuter, ‘bread, food, loaf,’ from the equivalent Middle High German brôt, Old High German brôt, neuter. The form with t is strictly Upper German; compare Low German brôd, Dutch brood, Anglo-Saxon breád, English bread, Old Icelandic brauð. The old inherited form for Brot was Laib (Gothic hlaifs); and ancient compounds like Anglo-Saxon hlâford.œd (for *hlâfward), ‘loafward, bread-giver,’ English lord, preserve the Old Teutonic word (see Laib), in addition to which a new word peculiar to Teutonic was formed from a Teutonic root. To this root, which appears in brauen, we must assign the earlier and wider meaning of ‘to prepare by heat or fire’; compare Anglo-Saxon and English broth (Italian broda, ‘broth,’ is of Teutonic origin) and brodeln. In Brot it would have the special signification ‘to bake.’ There is a strange Old Teutonic compound of Brot-, Middle High German bî-brôt, Modern High German Bienen-brot, Anglo-Saxon beóbreád, English beebread, all of which signify ‘honeycomb,’ literally ‘bread of bees’; in this compound the word Brot appears, singularly enough, for the first time. In earlier Anglo-Saxon the modern meaning, ‘bread,’ is still wanting, but it is found even in Old High German.