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brough

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Brough¹

  • /ˈbɹʌf/

Where it comes from

From Old English burh (“fortified place”). Doublet of borough, burgh, and Bury.

proper noun Broughs · Bruff

  1. countable, uncountable A village and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness district, Cumbria, England, previously in Eden district (OS grid ref NY7914).
  2. countable, uncountable A hamlet in Brough and Shatton parish, High Peak district, Derbyshire, England (OS grid ref SK1882).

    Similar: Brough-on-Noe

  3. countable, uncountable A town on the Humber estuary in Elloughton-cum-Brough parish, East Riding of Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE9426).

    Similar: Brough-on-Humber

  4. countable, uncountable A hamlet in Collingham parish, Newark and Sherwood district, Nottinghamshire, England (OS grid ref SK8358).
  5. countable, uncountable A small village in Caithness, Highland council area, Scotland (OS grid ref ND2273).
  6. countable, uncountable A settlement on Whalsay, Shetland Islands council area, Scotland (OS grid ref HU5564).
  7. countable, uncountable A settlement next to Burravoe, Yell, Shetland Islands council area (OS grid ref HU5179).
  8. countable A habitational surname from Old English.

brough²

  • /bɹʌf/
  • /bɹʊf/ Northern England

Where it comes from

A metathetic form of burgh (“mound, settlement”) employed in a special sense; thus a doublet of it, borough, Brough, burr (“halo, brough”), burrow, and Bury. For the semantic development, compare German Hof (“brough, halo, nimb”).

noun broughs · bruff

  1. A halo or luminous disk or ring seen around the sun or moon, and in folklore considered to portend a rainstorm. […] about the moon , called a brough, stormy weather is looked for within twenty-four hours; hence it is said, "a far off brough and a near hand storm." If small floating white clouds appear, which are called cat hair, rain is[…]

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MLA

"brough." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/brough. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

brough. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/brough

Chicago

"brough." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/brough.

BibTeX
@misc{brough_2026,
  title = {brough},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/brough},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}