braid

Etymology 1

From Middle English braiden, breiden, bræiden, from Old English breġdan (“to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (wrestling), draw (sword), drag; bend, weave, braid, knit, join together; change color, vary, be transformed; bind, knot; move, be pulled; flash”), from Proto-West Germanic *bregdan, from Proto-Germanic *bregdaną (“to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēḱ-, *bʰrēǵ- (“to shine, shimmer”). Cognate with Scots Scots brade, Scots braid (“to move quickly or suddenly”), Saterland Frisian braidje (“to knit”), West Frisian breidzje, Dutch breien (“to knit”), Low German breiden, German breiden, Bavarian bretten (“to move quickly, twitch”), Icelandic bregða (“to move quickly, jerk”), Faroese bregða (“to move quickly, react swiftly; to draw (sword)”) and Faroese bregda (“to plaid, braid, twist, twine”).

verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To make a sudden movement with, to jerk.
2. (archaic, intransitive) To start into motion.
3. (transitive) To weave together, intertwine (strands of fibers, ribbons, etc.); to arrange (hair) in braids.
4. To mix, or make uniformly soft, by beating, rubbing, or straining, as in preparing food.
5. (obsolete) To reproach; to upbraid.

noun

1. (obsolete) A sudden movement; a jerk, a wrench.
   He fixt vpon my face, which to my death / Will neuer part fro me, when with a braide / A deepe fet sigh he gaue, and therewithall / Clasping his handes, to heauen he cast his sight. 1561, Thomas Sackville, Ferrex and Porrex, act IV, scene ii, lines 1274–7
2. A weave of three or more strands of fibers, ribbons, cords or hair often for decoration.
   The physician should evaluate for a history of tight ponytails, buns, chignons, braids, twists, weaves, cornrows, dreadlocks, sisterlocks, and hair wefts in addition to the usage of religious hair coverings. 2021, Becky S. Li, Howard I. Maibach, Ethnic Skin and Hair and Other Cultural Considerations, page 154
3. A stranded wire composed of a number of smaller wires twisted together
4. A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a central cable for shielding against electromagnetic interference.
5. (obsolete) A caprice or outburst of passion or anger.
   Let the maide learne none uncleanly words, or wanton, or uncomely gesture and moving of the body, no not so much as when she is yet ignorant what shee doth, and innocent; for shee shall doe the same, when shee is growne bigger and of more discretion, […] And oftentimes such braides come uppon them against their will. 1540, Juan Luis Vives, chapter 2, in Richard Hyrde, transl., Instruction of a Christian Woman
6. (mathematics, topology) Given two sets of n points on corresponding positions on two parallel lines, a braid is a unique set of crossings (over or under) between n strands that connect each point on one line to a point on the other line such that all points represent the terminus of one and only one strand and the traversal of any strand from a starting point to an ending point never moves further away from the from the ending point.
   We introduce braids via their historical roots and uses, make connections with knot theory and present the mathematical theory of braids through the braid group. 2009, Mitchell A. Berger, Louis H. Kauffman, Renzo L. Ricca, Lectures on Topological Fluid Mechanics, page 1
   In order to characterise the structure and complexity of a braid different numbers or topological invariants can be calculated. 2012, A. T. Skjeltorp, Tamas Vicsek, Complexity from Microscopic to Macroscopic Scales, page 144

Etymology 2

adj

1. (obsolete) Deceitful.