Bracelets
Bracelets
I have my own theory on where the origins of the name “Bracelet” came from. Don’t take my word as fact, this was just a jump of intuition, or a revelation, or whatever you want to call it, I made.
Bracelet. I noticed the suffix “-let” on it. “-let” means something small, I think. Rivulet means small river-like stream of water. So take of “-let” and you have “Brace”
Now, bracers are sheathes of leather, stone or plastic that cover the inside of an archer’s lower arm to protect them from drawstring twang. If you’ve ever done archer or loosed an arrow you’ll know what I’m talking about. Bracers cover from the wrist up to the elbow, and they are there to prevent the archer being hurt from the drawstring, the fletching on the arrow. and also to prevent loose clothing from being caught by the drawstring.
Stone wrist-guards from the European bronze age have been though to have been archery bracers, but a recent suggestion is that they were status symbols without practical functions.
This leads me to believe even more that the full elbow-to-wrist bracers were shrunk down to leather cuff-like “Brace-lets”, perhaps as a ladies alternative, or for men for formal occasions for show, and from then on that name was applied to what we know now as bracelets.
And Wikipedia proves me wrong. “The origin of the term ‘bracelet’ is from the latin ‘brachile’ meaning ‘of the arm’, via the Old French ‘barcel’.”
… and I thought I had something going there. Ah well, it was an intuitive leap, though not technically correct, and it made sense.
