BROOCH or BROACH, originally an awl or bodkin, de notes a clasp or fastener for the dress, provided with a pin, hav ing a hinge or spring at one end and a catch or loop at the other. Brooches of the safety-pin type (fibulae) were extensively used in antiquity, but the place of origin cannot as yet be exactly de termined ; it would seem to have been in central Europe, towards the close of the Bronze age, somewhat before moo B.C. The earli est form is little more than a pin, bent round for security, with the point caught against the head, but from the third century or thereabout, brooches have developed into works of art, many of which are exquisitely decorated and ingeniously constructed. (See JEWELLERY.)