a general name among the Celts for a town--so called, apparently, from the Celtic words _braigh_, _brugh_, _brig_ (a heap, pile, or elevation), because the nucleus of towns, among uncivilised tribes in early times, were merely fortified places erected on heights; cognate with the Teut. and Scand. _burg_, _byrig_, the Sclav. _brieg_ (an embankment or ridge), and the Scottish _brae_ (a rising ground). Hence the name of the _Brigantes_ (dwellers on hills); the word _Brigand_ (literally, a mountaineer); Briançon, anc. _Brigantium_ (the town on the height); Brieg, a town in Silesia; Braga and Bragança, fortified cities in Portugal; Talavera, in Spain, anc. _Tala-briga_, the town on the _tala_, Span. (a wood clearing); Bregenz, anc. _Brigantium_, in the Tyrol; Breisach Alt and Neuf (the old and new town on the declivity), in the duchy of Baden--the old fortress was situated on an isolated basalt hill; Brixen (the town among the hills), in the Tyrol. In Scotland there are Braemar (the hilly district of Mar); Braidalbane (the hill country of _Albainn_, _i.e._ Scotland); Braeriach (the gray mountain, _riabhach_); the Brerachin, a river and district in Perthshire; Brugh and Bruighean, in Ireland, signifying originally a hill, was subsequently applied to a palace or a distinguished residence. The term, as applied to the old residences, presupposed the existence of a fortified brugh or rath, several of which still remain. The word has suffered many corruptions: thus Bruree, in Limerick, is from _Brugh-righ_ (the king’s fort); and _Bruighean_ (little fort) has been transformed into Bruff, Bruis, Bruce, or Bryan. The word _briva_, on the other hand, was generally applied to towns situated on rivers--as in Amiens, anc. _Samarabrina_, on the R. Somme--and was gradually used as synonymous with _pons_ (bridge), as in Pontoise, anc. _Briva-Isara_ (the bridge on the Ouse); Briare, anc. _Brivodurum_ (the bridge over the water); Brionde, anc. _Brives_. [Sidenote: BRINK (Ger.),] a grassy ridge; _e.g._ Osterbrink (east ridge); Mittelbrink (middle ridge); Zandbrink (sand ridge); Brinkhorst (the ridge of the thicket). [Sidenote: BRO (Cym.-Cel.),] a district; _e.g._ Broburg (the fort of the district), in Warwickshire; Pembroke (the head, _pen_, of the district, it being the land’s end of Wales). [Sidenote: BROC (A.S.),] a rushing stream; _e.g._ Cranbrook (the stream of the cranes); Wallbrook (probably the stream at the wall); Wambrook (Woden’s stream). [Sidenote: BROC (A.S.), BROX,] the badger; _e.g._ Brox-bourne and Broxburn, Brogden, Brokenhurst, Brockley, Broxholme (the stream, hollow, thicket, meadow, and hill of the badger). [Sidenote: BROD (Sclav.),]