Bray
/breɪ/noun
To make a loud, harsh, donkey-like sound.
Did you know?English bray is a sound-word with deep Germanic roots, and it also gave rise to bray in heraldry and older uses meaning “to shout loudly,” showing how animal noise became human noise.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*brajaną
“to make a loud noise, cry out”
Old English
OE
bræġan
“to bray or cry out loudly”
Middle English
ME
braien
“to make a harsh, loud cry; to bray like a donkey”
Modern English
English
bray
“to emit a loud, harsh, donkey-like sound”