Brabant: the marsh territory

Part two of a twelve part etymological reflection on the provinces of the Netherlands.

There seems to be a clear etymological route as to where the names of the current day Dutch province of Noord-Brabant and the Belgium provinces of Vlaams-Brabant and Waals-Brabant derive from. The areas of both provinces were once part of the now defunct Duchy of Brabant which in turn refers to the Carolingian shire pagus of Brabant (Latin: Pagus Bracbantensis, Dutch: Brabantgouw) located between the rivers Scheldt en Dijle which will have contributed to the marshiness.

In ancient Rome, a pagus was an administrative term designating a rural subdivision of a tribal territory and was still used as a geographical term in the early Middle Ages. On an obligatory etymological side note, pagus apparently means something along the lines of “boundary staked out on the ground”.

Coming back to the Bracbantensis of the matter, or the more familiar looking braecbant for that matter (spelling over time tends to be as loose as a wizard’s sleeve and the first part was variously spelled as brac-, brag-, brach-, braim, and brei), Braecbant is a compound of breac and bant which brings us neatly to the crux of matter of this post.

Starting with breac, as any self respecting reader and writer of left to right would, this word lives on in Dutch as broek, but not the garment. The most common definition of broek is trousers and this broek has its own splendid etymological tale (something about a pejorative term used by the Romans to describe barbareous trousered Gauls), but that will have to wait for another post in time.

The less common definition of broek is “low-lying marshy land” and so another fitting name for one of the provinces of the Netherlands. The origins are somewhat murky, but seem to go back to Old English brōc meaning “stream” and still recognisable in current day English brook and Duch beek which later evolved to mean “marsh” or “swamp”. 

The word is thereby also related to Dutch brak and English brackish i.e. silty or stagnant water where the Dutch word has the pleasing additional meaning of feeling rubbish (and maybe a bit salty), usually as a consequence of painting the swampland too red. 

Broek is also still seen in Dutch family names such as Van den Broek, Oudenbroek, Vandenbroucke, etc. all referring to their swampy origins. I do not mean to imply a lowly personal heritage, but rather that a lot of the Low Countries inherently were, well, low-lying marshy land. 

As such, there is a plethora of toponyms that incorporate this term of which I would like to highlight just one: Brussels or Bruxelles or Brussel sans -s. Pick your favourite. This center of chocolates, waffles and fries comes to us via Bruocsella(bruoc + sella) and Broekzele (broek + zele) or “settlement (zele) at the swamp (broek)”. Enfin, bon appetit.

The bant part was apparently common in toponyms of pagi such as Oosterbant and Teisterbant (both no longer with us), and refers to a medieval area of duty and authority called a ban (Latin: bannus). It originally referred to a royal prerogative but as time went on was frequently usurped by lesser nobles. 

The word comes to us from the PIE root bha “to speak, tell, say” to Proto-Germanic verb bannan “to speak publicly” to Old High German verb bannan “to command or forbid under threat of punishment” and the Old English verb bannan “to summon, command, proclaim”. From these verbs came the noun ban designating the area or jurisdiction or balliwick in which this authority held sway. 

A myriad of terms are related to this ban such as the adjective banal meaning commonplace as tenants of the ban were frequently required to use common mills, presses, ovens, etc. for the benefit of their lord exercising his banal rights. Other related terms are the verbs to ban as in to prohibit, to banish as in to expel, and nouns such as bandit as in a banished one, and contraband as in contrary to proclamation i.e. law. 

Mashing and mixing all theories together in an etymological chimera, one could say, and I shall, that Brabant is a brackish banality.