brandies n pl also brandishes, and attrib brandy. Prob a re-formation based on OED brandise obs, EDD brandis(s) 'a three-legged iron stand for supporting a pan ... over the fire'; DINNEEN brannra 'tripod,' 'a reef of rocks partly under water'; brannda 'a reef of rocks.' Group of 'sunken rocks' over which the sea breaks; BREAKER, HARRY, SUNKER; usu in place-names.
   [1774] 1971 SEARY 183 Brandys (Lane 1774). [1894 BURKE] 69 "Harbour Grace Excursion": Oh, she died below the Brandies / When we were coming back. 1900 HARVEY 124 ... its restless waves breaking upon the 'Brandies,' as the outlaying rocks are called. [1952] 1971 SEARY 90 Brandys, THE BRANDIES, 'three sunken rocks ... and a group of sunken and above water rocks, lie about three-quarters of a mile eastward and three-quarters of a mile east-southeastward, respectively, of the light-structure on CAPE ST FRANCIS' (NTS Pouch Cove). The name occurs variously as The Brandies, Brandies Rock(s), Brandies Shoal, Brandy Rock(s) in at least fourteen localities on the Newfoundland coast, and as The Brandies near the Saltee Islands off the southeast tip of Ireland. The name is apparently brandise—a trivet, an iron tripod for cooking over a fire, and probably referred originally to a group of three low pinnacle rocks, though subsequently it came to be applied to any low-lying rocks. 1953 Nfld & Lab Pilot ii, 126 The Brandishes fare] a group of above-water rocks, extending about 2 cables offshore. P 245-76 [When we docked, he said] 'You came through inside the Brandies.'

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