The word is parsed as a compound of the verb χέω: comparison with the verbal adjective χυτός "poured" accounts for the second syllable [khu]. The first syllable is explained through the comparative of the adjective ῥᾴδιος, here with intensive value "too easily", implying that what is short or small can be easily destroyed. The fact that the alpha is long in ῥᾶον whereas it is short in βραχύς is not commented upon and could suggest that the etymology dates back to a time when distinctive vowel quantity was lost. A more complete formulation is found in the Scholia Marciana to the Ars grammatica of Dionysius Thrax (see Parallels), which is certainly older than the formulation in the Etym. Gudianum. The initial [b] is explained as an Aeolicism, as Alcaeus has βρᾶ "easily" for Ionic ῥῆα and βραδίως for Attic ῥᾳδίως (mentioned in Herodian's Peri orthographias, Lentz III/2, p. 575, and repeated in Hesychius, Eustathius and the Byzantine Etymologica): this characteristic dialectal feature, mentioned in the initial formulation, was dropped by the compiler of the Etym. Gudianum or by his source