The Etymology of the Kurdish bro (Eyebrow)

برۆی کوردی

The Kurdish eyebrow as with some other Oriental languages Iranian or Semitic play an in important role in expressing emotions. The female eyebrow is taken metaphorically as the bow due to resemblance in form and the eyelashes are arrows fired at a man who falls in love and thus wounded. Kurdish songs sing of beautiful dark eyebrows as a kind of ornament ئه برۆی ره ش په شمین

On the other hand moving the eyebrows up and down two or three times successively at a girl /a woman / a boy by a male person suggests sexual desire and thus seen as vulgar and taken as impolite or making advances. There is an expression for this impolite behavior (برۆ هه لدان). 

The Kurdish برۆ is cognate with English brow, Old English bru extended to eyelash by association of the hair of the eyebrow with the hair of the eyelid. Proto-Germanic braewi blinker / twinkle PIE bhru-, Sanskrit bhrus, Greek ophrys. According to Online Dictiopnary of Etymology: Words for "eyelid," "eyelash," and "eyebrow" changed about maddeningly in Old and Middle English (and in all the West Germanic languages). By 1530s, brow had been given an extended sense of "forehead," especially with reference to movements and expressions that showed emotion or attitude.

Jamshid

Bremen, 24 March 2017