# Origin of word: broker

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-word-broker/166758>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 5, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-word-broker/166758 "2003-04-05T23:27:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@Bren\_Cameron\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bren_Cameron_1)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-word-broker/166758/1 "2003-04-05T23:27:44Z")

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My 6 year old, having constructed the word “broker” (as in “more broken”) and decided it wasn’t a word, discovered that it was, indeed a real word–but it didn’t mean “more broken.” She wanted to know what it meant, and I told her. Then she wanted to know where it came from. (She’d just been exposed to the whole idea of word roots and origins at school–last night in the tub she informed me that “fossil” comes from a Latin word that means “to dig.”)

I don’t know the answer–does anyone here?

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-word-broker/166758/2 "2003-04-05T23:31:15Z")

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From [Dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=broker)

[quote]  
[Broker:] Middle English, from Anglo-Norman brocour, abrocour;; akin to Spanish alboroque, ceremonial gift at conclusion of business deal, from Arabic al-barka, the blessing, colloquial variant of al-baraka : al-, the + baraka, blessing, divine favor (from braka, to bless. See brk in Semitic Roots).

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-word-broker/166758/3 "2003-04-05T23:39:38Z")

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From my _Chambers Dictionary of Etymology_:

The word appeared c. 1378 as _brokour_, a commercial agent or middleman, from Anglo-French _abrouker, brocour_ retailer of wine, from Old North French _brokeor_, from _brochier_ meaning “to tap or pierce” as in a keg, from _broche_, the tapping tool itself.

Looks like modern-day brokers hail from the wine trade.