Etymology
From Middle English brand, from Old English brand (“fire; flame; burning; torch; sword”), from Proto-West Germanic *brand, from Proto-Germanic *brandaz (“flame; flaming; fire-brand; torch; sword”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenu- (“to bubble forth; brew; spew forth; burn”).
Cognate with Scots brand, West Frisian brân (“fire”), Dutch brand, German Brand, Swedish brand (“blaze, fire”), Icelandic brandur, French brand (< Germanic). More distantly cognate with Proto-Slavic *gorěti (“to burn”).
Noun
brand (plural brands)
- (obsolete, rare) A flame.
1559, Jasper Heywood, transl., Troas:Goe to prepare the maryages what neede the torchis light? be holde the towres of troy do shyne with brandes that blase full bright.
1559, Jasper Heywood, transl., Troas:Is yet againe thy brest enflamde, / with brande of venus might
- (obsolete, rare) A conflagration.
- (archaic or poetic) A piece of burning wood or peat, or a glowing cinder.
to burn something to brands and ashes
1513, Gavin Douglas, The Eneados:The fearful brands and bleezes of het fire.
- 1859-1890, John Gorham Palfrey, History of New England to the Revolutionary War
- Snatching a live brand from a wigwam, Mason threw it on a matted roof.
1835, [Washington Irving], chapter VI, in A Tour on the Prairies (The Crayon Miscellany; no. 1), Philadelphia, Pa.: [Henry Charles] Carey, [Isaac] Lea, & Blanchard, →OCLC, page 47:About three o'clock, we came to a recent camping place of the company of rangers: the brands of one of their fires were still smoking; so that, according to the opinion of Beatte, they could not have passed on above a day previously.
1559, Jasper Heywood, transl., Troas:Or when amid the Grecians shippes, / he threw the brandes of fyre.
- (Scotland, Northern England) A torch used for signaling.
- (archaic) A sword.
1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:Paradise, so late their happy seat, / Waved over by that flaming brand.
1834 September (date written), Alfred Tennyson, “Sir Galahad”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, stanza I, page 174:The shattering trumpet shrilleth high, / The hard brands shiver on the steel, / The splintered spear-shafts crack and fly, / The horse and rider reel: […]
- A mark or scar made by burning with a hot iron, especially to mark cattle or to classify the contents of a cask.
1982 December 4, Mitzel, “A Sissy's Revenge”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 20, page 9:The indelible word "homosexual," like a brand that grew deeper and redder every day, became increasingly hard to conceal and to ignore.
- Hyponym: badge
- A branding iron.
- The symbolic identity, represented by a name and/or a logo, which indicates a certain product or service to the public.
- Synonyms: trademark, logo, brand name, marque, tradename, proprietary name
1999, Bernd Schmitt, Experiential marketing, page 39:The Amtrak brand revitalization approach represents one of the most ambitious, comprehensive, and systematic experiential marketing approaches I have ever seen.
2000, Duane E. Knapp, The Brandmindset, page 67:In this way, every Citibanker becomes a brand manager and an ambassador of the Citibank brand. ... Indeed, the Citibank brand will "never sleep"
2010, Gayle Soucek, Marshall Field's: The Store That Helped Build Chicago, page 136:Mr. Lundgren claimed that Federated had conducted a focus group and the analysis showed that most people were either indifferent to the name change or preferred the Macy's brand.
2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.
- A specific product, service, or provider so distinguished.
Some brands of breakfast cereal contain a lot of sugar.
- (by extension) Any specific type or variety of something; a distinct style or manner.
I didn’t appreciate his particular brand of flattery.
New Orleans brand sausage; Danish brand ham
2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:[O]ne minute this "Jihadi John" was struggling to get by, and get accepted, in drizzly England, unemployed with a mortgage to pay and a chip on his shoulder, and the next he stands in brilliant Levantine sunlight, where everything is clear and etched, at the vanguard of some Sunni Risorgimento intent on subjecting the world to its murderous brand of Wahhabi Islam.
- The public image or reputation and recognized, typical style of an individual or group.
- Synonyms: repute, name, good name
2011, Tom Bevan, Carl M. Cannon, Election 2012: The Battle Begins, Crown, →ISBN:The Obama brand had taken a hit two months earlier, when he campaigned for Creigh Deeds in Virginia and Jon Corzine in New Jersey, only to see them both lose.
2012, Start Your Own Personal Concierge Service, Entrepreneur Press, →ISBN, page 104:Her brand is edgy, cosmopolitan, and out-of-the-box, so blogging is the perfect, ever-changing match for her.
2019, Sally Thorne, 99 Percent Mine: A Novel, HarperCollins, →ISBN:He unplugged my umbilical cord to take a leisurely swig, smirking, watching me turn blue before giving it back. My cardiologist told me that was impossible, but I'm still convinced. That's very on-brand for [my twin] Jamie.
2022 May 14, David Segal, quoting Simon Kuper, “An Outsider Takes an Inside Look at the Oxford ‘Chums’ Who Run the U.K.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:“We made fun of [Jacob Rees-Mogg] in the paper” — that would be Cherwell, Oxford’s student-run weekly, where Kuper was a reporter — “all the while not realizing that we were helping to build his brand.”
- A mark of infamy; stigma.
- Any minute fungus producing a burnt appearance in plants.
Translations
name, symbol, logo
- Arabic: عَلَامَة (ar) f (ʕalāma), شِعَار (ar) m (šiʕār)
- Bashkir: билдә (bildə), тамға (tamğa)
- Belarusian: ма́рка f (márka), знак (be) m (znak), лагаты́п m (lahatýp)
- Bulgarian: бе́лег (bg) m (béleg), ма́рка (bg) f (márka)
- Catalan: marca (ca) f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 牌子 (zh) (páizi), 牌 (zh) (pái)
- Czech: značka (cs) f
- Danish: mærke n, varemærke n
- Dutch: merk (nl) n
- Esperanto: markigo
- Estonian: kaubamärk
- Finnish: tuotemerkki (fi)
- French: marque (fr) f
- Galician: marca (gl) f
- German: Marke (de) f, Label (de) n
- Greek: μάρκα (el) f (márka)
- Hungarian: márka (hu)
- Indonesian: merek (id), jenama (id)
- Italian: marca (it) f
- Japanese: ブランド (ja) (burando)
- Khmer: យីហោ (km) (yiihao)
- Korean: 브랜드 (ko) (beuraendeu)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: مارکە (marke)
- Macedonian: марка f (marka)
- Malay: jenama
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: varemerke n
- Persian: مارک (fa) (mârk)
- Polish: marka (pl) f
- Portuguese: marca (pt) f
- Romanian: marcă (ro) f, efigie (ro) f
- Russian: ма́рка (ru) f (márka), знак (ru) m (znak), логоти́п (ru) m (logotíp)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ма̀рка f
- Roman: màrka (sh) f
- Slovak: značka f
- Slovene: znamka (sl) f
- Spanish: marca (es) f, marca de fábrica f, marca registrada (es) f
- Swedish: märke (sv) n, varumärke (sv) n
- Thai: ตรา (th) (dtraa), ตราสินค้า, ยี่ห้อ (th) (yîi-hɔ̂ɔ), แบรนด์ (th)
- Ukrainian: ма́рка f (márka), знак m (znak), логоти́п (uk) m (lohotýp)
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a specific product, service, or provider so distinguished
- Albanian: markë (sq) f
- Arabic: مَارْكَة f (mārka)
- Armenian: բրենդ (hy) (brend), մարկա (hy) (marka)
- Azerbaijani: marka (az), brend
- Bashkir: бренд (brend)
- Belarusian: ма́рка f (márka), брэнд m (brend)
- Bengali: মার্কা (bn) (marka)
- Bulgarian: ма́рка (bg) f (márka), бранд m (brand)
- Catalan: marca (ca) f
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 牌子 (zh) (páizi), 品牌 (zh) (pǐnpái)
- Czech: značka (cs) f
- Danish: mærke n
- Dutch: merk (nl) n
- Esperanto: marko (eo)
- Estonian: bränd, mark (et)
- Finnish: brändi (fi), merkki (fi)
- French: marque (fr) f
- Georgian: მარკა (marḳa), ბრენდი (brendi)
- German: Marke (de) f
- Greek: μάρκα (el) f (márka)
- Hebrew: מוּתָג (he) (mutág)
- Hindi: ब्रांड (brāṇḍ)
- Hungarian: márka (hu)
- Ido: sorto (io)
- Indonesian: merek (id)
- Italian: marca (it) f
- Japanese: ブランド (ja) (burando)
- Kazakh: марка (marka), бренд (brend)
- Korean: 브랜드 (ko) (beuraendeu)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: مارکە (marke)
- Kyrgyz: марка (marka), бренд (ky) (brend)
- Latvian: marka f
- Lithuanian: markė f
- Macedonian: марка f (marka)
- Malay: jenama
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: merke (no) n
- Nynorsk: merke n
- Persian: مارک (fa) (mârk), برند (fa) (brand)
- Polish: marka (pl) f
- Portuguese: marca (pt) f
- Romanian: marcă (ro) f
- Russian: ма́рка (ru) f (márka), бренд (ru) m (brɛnd)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ма̀рка f
- Roman: màrka (sh) f
- Slovak: značka f
- Slovene: znamka (sl) f
- Spanish: marca (es) f, marca comercial f
- Swedish: märke (sv) n
- Tajik: марка (tg) (marka), бренд (brend)
- Thai: ตราสินค้า, ยี่ห้อ (th) (yîi-hɔ̂ɔ), แบรนด์ (th)
- Turkish: marka (tr)
- Ukrainian: ма́рка m (márka), бренд (uk) m (brend)
- Urdu: برانڈ (brānḍ)
- Uzbek: marka (uz), brend
- Vietnamese: nhãn hiệu (vi)
- Yiddish: מאַרקע m (marke)
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Translations to be checked
Verb
brand (third-person singular simple present brands, present participle branding, simple past and past participle branded)
- (transitive) To burn the flesh with a hot iron, either as a marker (for criminals, slaves etc.) or to cauterise a wound.
When they caught him, he was branded and then locked up.
- (transitive) To mark (especially cattle) with a brand as proof of ownership.
The ranch hands had to brand every new calf by lunchtime.
- (transitive) To make an indelible impression on the memory or senses.
Her face is branded upon my memory.
- (transitive) To stigmatize, label (someone).
He was branded a fool by everyone that heard his story.
1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter II, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:I had never defrauded a man of a farthing, nor called him knave behind his back. But now the last rag that covered my nakedness had been torn from me. I was branded a blackleg, card-sharper, and murderer.
2011 October 23, Phil McNulty, “Man Utd 1-6 Man City”, in BBC Sport:As Ferguson strode briskly towards the Stretford End at the final whistle, he will have been reflecting on the extent of the challenge now facing him from the club he once branded "noisy neighbours".
- (transitive, marketing) To associate a product or service with a trademark or other name and related images.
They branded the new detergent "Suds-O", with a nature scene inside a green O on the muted-colored recycled-cardboard box.
- (intransitive) To be very hot, to burn.
1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto II:O, not for thee the glow, the bloom,
Who changest not in any gale,
Nor branding summer suns avail
To touch thy thousand years of gloom: […]
Translations
mark with proof of ownership
impress on the memory or senses
- Bulgarian: отпечатвам се (otpečatvam se)
- Danish: indprente
- French: graver (fr)
- Middle English: branden
- Norwegian: innprente
- Romanian: întipări (ro), grava (ro)
- Turkish: kazınmak (zihnine/aklına)
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References
- “brand”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- brand in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
- “brand”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.