very good and VERY brave (or, etymological redundancy)

[kaberett]

I mentioned, recentlyish, being both good and brave.

I have been wondering, on and off, over the about -- well, "brav" is the German for "good" (in the sense of well-behaved), so... cognate???

I was initially plerplexed by poking at etymonline and wiktionary, both of which specify

From Middle French brave, borrowed from Italian bravo, itself of uncertain origin...

... but NOPE that's also where we get brav from!

Bonus: etymonline also encouraged me to look up Old English "modig" ("(now "moody")"), in some startlement, because that sure does look like "mutig" i.e. the German for "brave"! ... yep, they're cognate too. I am charmed by the semantic drift!

Comments

[simont]

faintly disappointed you didn't discover "soggy" was also cognate

[haggis]

In Welsh Braf and Scots brave still means fine or excellent.

[sfred]

Braf (pronounced brav) also Welsh for "good", but in the sense of nice, inc good weather.

[sfred]

Oh, as haggis has already said.

[silveradept]

Words are fun things, aren't they?