From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
A snack, either soft or hard, often salted and glazed, shaped into a loose knot and poached in water before baking. The name comes either from the Latin pretium, meaning "reward" (given to children who have been good), or the Old High German brezitella, derived from the medieval Latin brachiatellum, meaning "little arm or branch." The design supposedly came from German monks in AD 610 as a symbol of arms folded in prayer.
