Brat

How to spell brat

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce brat

What does brat mean?

1. nounA child, especially one who behaves badly or is spoiled and demanding.

Brat in a sentence

• The spoiled brat refused to share any of his toys.

• The neighbours complained that the brat kept kicking footballs over the fence.

Where does brat come from?

Language of origin: Celtic

The origin of 'brat' is genuinely murky, and scholars do not fully agree on it. The most popular theory connects it to an old regional English word 'brat' meaning a coarse cloak, pinafore, or ragged garment, which in turn may derive from an Old Irish or Celtic word 'bratt' for a cloak or rag. By this line of thinking, a 'brat' was originally a child dressed in rags, a beggar's child, and the word shifted from the clothing to the unruly child wearing it. It surfaced in English in the sixteenth century, usually with a scornful or contemptuous edge aimed at a badly behaved youngster. Because the path from 'rag' to 'child' is plausible but not proven, the spelling is simply the bare four letters with no hidden parts, which makes it easy to write once you know it.

How the word is built

• brat (single root; possibly from a dialectal word for a child's pinafore or ragged garment)