broidenadj.

Etymology: A past participle of braid v.¹ (compare abraid v.¹, which had also abroiden ), and thus a doublet of browden adj., which was the normal form, since Old English og became ow , ou in Middle English But the combination was very rare before a consonant: so that evidence is wanting to show whether ogd might become oid as well as owd , or whether in the case of broiden we have a kind of analogical variant of broden , somewhat on the model of breden , breiden of the infinitive. The question is the more important that the oi in broiden is apparently the source of that in broid v., broider v., and their derivatives, in all of which it is unexpected. (Littré has Provençal broydar, for brosdar = French broder, but although French broder, and English broden, were certainly confused at a later date, we cannot see how broiden, abroiden could be in any way affected by the Provençal word.)