Word of the Day

: December 30, 2007

brusque

adjective BRUSK

What It Means

1 : markedly short and abrupt

2 : blunt in manner or speech often to the point of ungracious harshness

brusque in Context

Her brusque manner, often mistaken by others as unfriendliness, is actually caused by extreme shyness.

Did You Know?

We borrowed "brusque" from French in the 1600s. The French, in turn, had borrowed it from Italian, where it was spelled "brusco" and meant "tart." And the Italian term came from "bruscus," the Medieval Latin name for butcher's-broom, a shrub whose bristly leaf-like twigs have long been used for making brooms. English speakers initially used "brusque" to refer to a tartness in wine, but the word soon came to denote a harsh and stiff manner -- which is just what you might expect of a word bristling with associations to stiff, scratchy brooms.

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.