# Why bracelet?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-bracelet/612
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 2, 1999, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-bracelet/612 "1999-06-02T02:17:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 2, 1999, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-bracelet/612/1 "1999-06-02T02:17:00Z")
## Necklaces go around the neck. Anklets around the ankle. What’s with bracelets? Why aren’t they called wristlets?
Bigamy is having one wife to many. Monogamy is the same. - Oscar Wilde
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 2, 1999, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-bracelet/612/2 "1999-06-02T02:24:00Z")
My guess is that it’s from the Latin, brachium(sp?) - meaning “arm”.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 2, 1999, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-bracelet/612/3 "1999-06-02T03:00:00Z")
That’s my guess too: diminutive of _bras_ arm, from Latin _bracchium_.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 2, 1999, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-bracelet/612/4 "1999-06-02T04:13:00Z")
Aren’t them arm protection thingies called ‘bracers’? Well, then these are li’l tiny arm thingies, so they’re bracelets. Good enoughr eason for me. Oh yeah… and that latin thing. Actually, I’d say look it up in the dictionary and most good ones have a short bit on the origin of the word.
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### Author:  [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [June 4, 1999, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-bracelet/612/5 "1999-06-04T03:44:00Z")
From _Dictionary of Word Origins_:
> [@](#):
>
> **bracelet** (15) The Latin word for ‘bracelet’ was _bracchiale_, a derivative of _bracchium_ ‘arm’ - thus, ‘something worn on or round the arm.’ This passed into Old French as _bracel_, which made a brief and unconvincing appearance in English in the early 16th century. It was the French diminutive form, _bracelet_, which caught on in English.
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