bracelet [LME] Adopted from Old French, from bras ‘arm’, from Latin brachium ‘arm’. Old French had a special word, brace for ‘both arms, two arms’. This is the source of brace [ME] from ‘two’ as in ‘a brace of pheasants’, and also for something that clasps, like the brace on teeth, or that supports. Embrace [ME], to clasp in both arms, goes back to the same source.