eyebrow
EYE-brow · noun
Origin
From Middle English eȝebreu, an alteration of Old English ēaganbrū, literally 'eye' + 'brow.' A related Old English word, ēagbrǣw, actually meant 'eyelid.'
This is Curio: one word's origin story, every morning. No feed, no backlog.
One short email each morning. Free; stop anytime. See a sample →
Journey
The word settled on naming the ridge of hair above the eye, even though its Old English cousin pointed instead to the eyelid — a small drift in meaning along the way.
Related words
Dutch oogbrauw and German Augenbraue share the same 'eye' + 'brow' structure, though oogbrauw can also mean eyelid or eyelash, showing how flexible these related words once were.