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Origin and history of bronco

bronco(n.)

also broncho, "untamed or half-tamed horse of the American Southwest," 1850, American English, apparently from a noun use of Spanish bronco (adj.) "rough, rude," originally a noun meaning "a knot in wood," perhaps from Vulgar Latin *bruncus "a knot, projection," apparently from a cross of Latin broccus "projecting" (see broach (n.)) + truncus "trunk of a tree" (see trunk (n.1)). Bronco-buster "person who breaks horses" is attested from 1886.

also from 1850

Entries linking to bronco

broach(n.)

"pointed instrument," c. 1300, from Old French broche (12c.) "spit for roasting, awl, point end, top," from Vulgar Latin *brocca "pointed tool" (source also of Spanish broca, Italian brocca), noun use of fem. of Latin adjective broccus "projecting, pointed" (used especially of teeth), perhaps of Gaulish origin (compare Gaelic brog "awl").

trunk(n.1)

[main part of something, as distinguished from its appendages] mid-15c., "box, case," from Anglo-French trunke, tronke, variants of Old French tronc "alms box in a church," also "stem of a tree from which the branches spring; trunk of the human body; wooden block" (12c.), also from Medieval Latin truncus.

Both are from Latin truncus "trunk of a tree; trunk of the body; wooden block," a word of uncertain origin, probably originally "mutilated, cut off." 

The post-classical development of the meaning "box, case with a lid or top" is likely to be from the notion of the body as the "case" of the organs. Especially a case for conveying clothes, etc. on a journey. The sense of "luggage compartment of a motor vehicle" is from 1930 (compare boot (n.1)). 

English acquired the "woody main stem of a tree" and "torso of a human or animal body" senses from Old French in late 15c.

Extended to blood vessels, etc.; the railroad trunk line is attested by 1843; the phrase in reference to telephone lines is by 1889. Trunk-hose (1630s) apparently so called in reference to covering the body, as distinguished from the limbs.

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