Brooding Over Thoughts Comes From Sitting on Eggs
A brood is a family of young birds. To brood means to sit on eggs, and the sense of dwelling on dark thoughts follows the same posture.
A brood is a set of young birds hatched together, and to brood is to sit on eggs. The mental sense is a direct picture: someone brooding over a grievance is sitting on it, keeping it warm, waiting for it to hatch. The word is from the same root as *breed*, and both go back to an idea of warming.
- A family of young. *A brood of chicks.*
- To sit on eggs. *The hen is brooding.*
- To dwell on gloomily. *He brooded for weeks.*
- Brooding — dark and thoughtful. *A brooding silence.*
- Broody — wanting to sit on eggs, or wanting children. *A broody hen.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | brood | A large brood. |
| Verb | brood | Brood over it. |
| Adjective | brooding | A brooding sky. |
| Adjective | broody | Feeling broody. |
| Related | breed | Breeding season. |
- The duck led her brood to the water.Wildlife.
- He brooded over the rejection.Figurative.
- A brooding presence in the corner.Atmosphere.
Broody means two things
- Of a hen — ready to sit on eggs and stop laying
- Of a person — feeling a strong wish to have children, British informal
- Brooding — of a person or an atmosphere, dark and thoughtful
- Brood over — to dwell on something unhappily
- Brood parasite — a bird like the cuckoo that leaves eggs in another's nest
Old English *brod*, from a Germanic root meaning warmth, related to *breed*. The sense of gloomy thought appears in the 1600s.
Why does brood mean to think gloomily?
From the image of a bird sitting motionless on eggs. Brooding on a grievance keeps it warm rather than resolving it.
What is a brood parasite?
A bird that lays its eggs in another species' nest, leaving the host to raise the young. Cuckoos are the best-known example.