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BRAN
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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.