brae

Etymology

From Middle English bro, bra (“bank of a stream; raised edge of a ditch or pit”), from Old Norse brá (“eyebrow; eyelash”) (probably in the sense of the brow of a hill), from Proto-Germanic *brēwō (“eyebrow”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃bʰrúHs (“eyebrow”). The English word is cognate with Old English brǣw, brēaw (“eyelid”), Old High German brāwa (Middle High German brā, modern German Braue (“eyebrow”)), Old Saxon brāwa, brāha (“eyebrow; eyelash”); and is a doublet of bree (“(Scotland) brow; forehead; (obsolete or dialectal, Scotland) eyebrow; eyelid”) and brow.

noun

1. (Northern England, Scotland) The sloping bank of a river valley.
2. (Northern England, Scotland) Any hillside or slope.
   You are directed to the particular part of the brae where the Covenanters stationed themselves, (at the time of my visit it was a field of pasture, on which some cows were quietly feeding,) and the eminence behind, … 1 August 1828, “A.”, “A Visit to the Covenanters. (Concluded.)”, in The Paisley Magazine, volume I, number 8, Paisley, Renfrewshire: David Dick, →OCLC, page 392
   The party was in a big bungalow with an enormous brae for a garden. 1995, Alan Warner, Morvern Callar, London: Jonathan Cape; republished London: Vintage Books, 2015, page 19