Etymology of Braze
Our Language
Source: The Oxford English Dictionary, V XII V-Z and Bibliography, 1970 Reprint.
Braze v1
1. trans. To make of brass; to cover or ornament with brass.
[c1000 ÆLFRIC Gram. xxxvi, 215 Aero, ic brasize]
1552 HULOET, Brasen, or to make with brasse, aero.
1611 COTGR., to Braze; to make of, or couer with, brasse.
c1615 CHAPMAN Odyss. xv. (R.) A caldron or a tripod, richly braz'd.
1693 W. ROBERTSON Phraseol. Gen. 278 To braze or cover with brass.
2. fig. a. to make hard like brass, harden, inure; b. 'to harden to impudence' (J.) (Cf. "brazen-faced. But some view this as a sense of BRAZE v2, taken as = harden in the fire.)
1602 SHAKS. Ham. III. iv. 37 And let me wring your heart.. If damned Custome haue not braz'd it so. That is proofe and bulwarke against Sense.
1608 ARMIN Nest Ninn. (1842) I, I am brazed by your favours, made bould in your ostended curtesies.
1616 BRETON Good & Bad (1616) 31 His face is brazed that he cannot blush.
1648 JENKYN Blind Guide iii. 62 You reply nothing, but new braze your face.
1833 Fraser's Mag VIII. 707 Custom has so brazed the whole fraternity to these nefarious practices.
3. transf. To colour like brass.
1864 W. STORY Roba di R. xix. 402 The sunset brazes with splendor the throbbing sky.
1866 LOWELL Poet. Wks. (1879) 372 Clouds That braze the horizon's western rim.
Braze v2
† 1. To fire, expose to the action of fire. Obs.
1581 LAMBARDE Eiren. iv iv. 458 If any arrowhead Smith haue not well boiled, brased and hardened at the point with steele.. such heads or arrowes..as he hath made.
2. To solder (with an alloy of brass and zinc).
1677 MOXON Mech. Exerc. (1703) 12 You may have occasion sometimes to Braze..a piece of work; but it is used by Smiths only, when their work is so thin, or small, that it will not endure Welding.
1835 SIR J. ROSS N.-W. Pass. ii 12 So much worn, as to require a piece to be brazed to it, to restore its thickness.
1875 'Stonehenge' Brit. Sports I.V.xi § I.
1881 GREENER Gun 235 It is common practice with foreign makers to braze their barrels together from end to end.
Brazed
Made or covered with brass; also fig. brazened, rendered shameless.
1583 STANYHURST Æneis I. (Arb.) 32 Thee beams with brazed copper were costlye bepounced.
1773 JOHNSON in Boswell (1831) III. 83 Tytler advanced with his front ready brazed.
1884 Nonconf. 13 Mar. 258/2 Questions..talked about with staggering audacity in the brazed communities of the States.
Brazier1
One who works in brass.
c1400 Destr. Troy 1589 Belmakers, bokebynders, brasiers fyn.
c1440 Promp. Parv. 47 Brasyere, erarius.
1503 Act 19 Hen. VII, vi §I The seid Craftez of Peweterer and Braseer.
1530 PALSGR. 200/2 Brayser, fondevr.
1613 SHAKS. Hen. VIII, v.iv. 42 He should be a Brazier by his face.
1724 SWIFT Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. II. 15 Mr. Wood made his half-pence of such base metal .. that the brazier would hardly give you above a penny of good money for a shilling of his.
1852 MISS YONGE Cameos (1877) II. xxviii. 301 A brazier named Lambert .. began to harangue the people.
Source: An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, by the Rev. Walter W. Skeat, Litt.D., D.C.L., Ph.D., F.B.A., 1974 Impession
BRAZE (I), to harden. Shak. has brazed, hardened, Hamlet, iii. 4. 37; Lear, i.I.II Generally explained to mean 'hardened like brass;' but it may maen simply 'hardened.' Cotgave says 'braser l'argent' is to re-pass silver a little over hot embers (sur la braise). -- OF. brasere, to burn, pass through fire (Godefroy); F. braser, to solder; Roquefort has: 'Braser, souder le fer.' --Icel. brasa, to harden by fire; Norw. brasa, to solder; Dan. brase, to fry; utland brase, to roast.
BRAZE (2), to ornament with brass. (e.) used by Chapman, Homer's Odys. xv. 113 In this sense, the verb is a mere derivative of the sb.brass We find: 'aero, ic braisge;' Ælfric's Gr., ed. Zupitza, p. 215, 1. 17.