Forms: 4–6 braser, 5 bracere (in Cath. Angl.), brassure, 6 bracher, 6–7 brasar, 7 bracert, brasser, 4– bracer. [a. OF. brasseüre (L. type *bracchiātūra, f. bracchium arm); influenced by the synon. Fr. brassard, and by analogy of -ER. cf. bordure, border.]
The portion of a suit of armor covering the arm. Also a sort of guard for the wrist used in archery, in fencing, and in playing games at ball.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 111. Vp on his arm he baar a gay bracer.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1859. Brasers burnyste bristez in sondyre.
1544. Ascham, Toxoph. (Arb.), 108. A bracer serueth … to saue his arm from the strype of the strynge. Ibid. (1654), 146. I sawe a man whyche vsed a brasar on his cheke.
1570. Levins, Manip., 72. A Bracher, brachiale.
1611. Markham, Countr. Content., I. viii. (1668), 47. A mans Arm arm’d in a bracer of wood.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 31. His arrow head he quickly maketh with a little bone, which he ever weareth at his bracert.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), II. IV. 259. Presented him with a helmet, bracers & bracelets all of gold.
1801. Strutt, Sports & Past., II. iii. 89. A round hollow bracer of wood to cover the hand and lower part of the arm, with which he struck the ball.
1886. J. G. Wood, Man & Handiwk., 241. Modern archers … possess … a sort of gauntlet called a ‘bracer.’
