BRAN  , the ground husk of

wheat, oats, barley or other cereals, used for feeding cattle, packing and other purposes (see FLOUR) . The word occurs in French bren or bran, in the dialects of other Romanic languages, and also in Celtic, cf . Breton brenn, Gaelic bran . The New English Dictionary considers these Celtic forms to be borrowed from French or English . In modern French bren means filth, refuse, and this points to some connexion with Celtic words, e.g . Irish brews, manure . If so, the original meaning a poem entitled: On Illicit Love, written among the ruins of Godstow Nunnery, near Oxford (1775, Newcastle); The History and Antiquities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (2 vols., London, 1789), and many papers in the Archaeologia .