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Back in the days of Middle English, the Anglo-French noun bruit, meaning "clamor" or "noise," rattled into English. Soon English speakers were also using it to mean "report" or "rumor" (it was applied especially to favorable reports). They also began using bruit the way the verb noise was used (and still occasionally is) with the meaning "to spread by rumor or report" (as in "The scandal was quickly noised about"). The English noun bruit is now considered archaic, apart from a medical sense that is pronounced like the French word and refers to one of the abnormal sounds heard on auscultation.
Examples of bruit in a Sentence
Lisa Sanders, New York Times, 13 June 2018
Melik Kaylan, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024
For the past few decades, several South Korean authors have been bruited about as contenders for the Nobel Prize in Literature, notably the poet Ko Un and the novelist Hwang Sok-yong, elder statesmen who were both previously jailed for political activism.
—Ed Park, The Atlantic, 12 Oct. 2024
At present the Federal Reserve is bruiting the dangerous notion of pushing down a maximum charge of .14 cents per debit card swipe.
—John Tamny, Forbes, 21 Feb. 2024
Since the energy crisis, which started in the fall of 1973, hydrogen has been bruited about as a future source of energy.
—Llewellyn King, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
Dramatic action, long bruited about, comes late, though forcefully: the schoolteacher, Matthew Diamond, a mainlander who is ambivalent toward his charges, introduces the threat, and then the reality, of unwanted attention from the government.
—Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 21 Jan. 2023
The main downside to the bill identified by the legislative analysts and bruited about by the drug industry is that lower profits would lead to a reduction in R&D spending.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2019
It was bruited about, for example, in 1992, during the George H.W. Bush administration, and again in 2012, when there were hopes that Mitt Romney would win election over Barack Obama.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 30 July 2019
All these measures have been bruited about by economists inside and outside the government since 2012, when GDP growth slowed to a crawl even with oil prices still around $100 a barrel.
—Leon Aron, National Review, 16 Feb. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Bruit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bruit. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bruit
1 of 2 nounbruit
2 of 2 verbMedical Definition
bruit
noun
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