XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.language.latin   
   From: naddy@mips.inka.de   
      
   On 2024-11-14, Rich Ulrich  wrote:   
      
   >>Origin:        The use of "broad" to refer to a woman dates back to the   
   >>early 20th century, particularly in American slang.   
   >   
   >    Slang sense of "woman" is by 1911, perhaps suggestive of broad   
   >    hips, but it also might trace to American English abroadwife, word   
   >    for a woman (often a slave) away from her husband.   
      
   That's the sort of thing you look up in _Green’s Dictionary of Slang_   
   https://greensdictofslang.com/   
   ... which unfortunately doesn't provide a definitive answer either   
   in this case.   
      
   The slang term is typically rendered as "Braut" into German, and I   
   never gave this any thought because the words are so similar, but   
   now I notice that "Braut" is of course cognate with "bride", so   
   "broad" can't really be connected... unless it's a borrowing from   
   another Germanic language?  But neither German "Braut", nor Dutch   
   "bruid", nor Scandinavian "brud" seem quite right.   
      
   --   
   Christian "naddy" Weisgerber                          naddy@mips.inka.de   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)