bruit

See also: brúit and brùit

English
WOTD – 10 August 2020

Etymology 1

The noun is derived from Middle English bruit (“commotion, tumult; fame, renown; collective noun for a group of barons”) [and other forms],[1] from Anglo-Norman brut (“commotion, tumult; noise, sounds; fame, renown; hearsay, rumour; collective noun for a group of barons”) and Old French bruit (“commotion, tumult; noise, sounds; fame, renown; hearsay, rumour”) (modern French bruit (“noise; report, rumour”)), a noun use of the past participle of bruire (“to make a noise; to rattle; to roar; to rustle”), from Late Latin brugere, an alteration of Latin rugīre (“to roar”) (the present active infinitive of rugiō (“to bray; to bellow, roar; to rumble”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewg- (“to belch; to roar”)), possibly influenced by Late Latin bragere (“to bray”). The English word is cognate with Catalan brogir (“to roar”); Old Occitan bruir, brugir (“to roar”).[2]

The verb is derived from the noun.[3]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bro͞ot, IPA(key): /bɹuːt/
  • Audio (RP)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /bɹut/
  • Audio (GA)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːt
  • Homophone: brute

Noun

bruit (countable and uncountable, plural bruits)

  1. (uncountable, archaic) Hearsay, rumour; talk; (countable) an instance of this.
    • a. 1531, John Galt, quoting Thomas Wolsey, “[Appendix. Book III.] No. V. The Copie of My Lord Cardinall’s L’res, Sent to the Lord Dacre of the Northe.”, in The Life and Administration of Cardinal Wolsey, London: […] T[homas] Cadell and W[illiam] Davies, published 1812, OCLC 776778062, page xxxii:
      [R]ememberyng yor accustumable proudent demeanor as well in the atteyning assurid knowledge of the intended purpose of the Scotts, from tyme to tyme, by suche good esp'iell and intelligence that ye have had among the said Scotts, as of the bruits and newes occ'rant amongs them, it is the more mervailed, that if eyther any such attemptats have been made by the said Scotts upon the king's subjects, or that any such bruits be in Scotland of the said duke's thider comyng, that ye have not advertised the king's highnes or me thereof before this tyme; [...]
    • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene vii], page 167, column 1:
      Brother, we will proclaime you out of hand, / The bruit thereof will bring you many friends.
    • c. 1605–1608, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene i], page 97, column 1:
      But yet I loue my Country, and am not / One that reioyces in the common wracke, / As common bruite doth put it.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Vaine-Glory. LIIII.”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, OCLC 863521290, page 308:
      Neither can they [vainglorious people] be Secret, and therefore not Effectuall; but according to the French Prouerbe; Beaucoup de Bruit, peu de Fruit: Much Bruit, little Fruit.
    • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XVII. From Mr. Lovelace, in Continuation.”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume III, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], OCLC 13631815, page 104:
      Common bruit!—Is virtue to be eſtabliſhed by common bruit only?—Has her virtue ever been proved?—Who has dared to try her virtue?
    • 1780 November 7, John Adams, “Letter XXXVI”, in Correspondence of the Late President Adams. […], number 1, Boston, Mass.: […] Everett and Munroe, […], published 1809, OCLC 316650277, page 266:
      The bruits of a treaty between the United Provinces and the United States, are as true as moſt of the bruits.
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./1/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, London: W[illiam] Collins Sons & Co., OCLC 607498, OL 1519647W:
      And so it had always pleased M. Stutz to expect great things from the dark young man whom he had first seen in his early twenties ; and his expectations had waxed rather than waned on hearing the faint bruit of the love of Ivor and Virginia—for Virginia, M. Stutz thought, would bring fineness to a point in a man like Ivor Marlay, [...]
  2. (countable, obsolete) A clamour, an outcry; a noise.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Nahum 3:19, column 2:
      There is no healing of thy bruiſe: thy wound is grieuous: all that heare the bruit of thee, ſhall clap the hands ouer thee: for vpon whom hath not thy wickedneſſe paſſed continually?
    • 1827, Thomas Hood, “The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies”, in The Plea of the Midsummer Fairies, Hero and Leander, Lycus the Centaur, and Other Poems, Philadelphia, Pa.: E[liakim] Littell, […], and J. Grigg, […], OCLC 5209941, stanza XVI, page 6:
      [S]ome fresh bruit / Startled me all aheap!—and soon I saw / The horridest shape that ever raised my awe,— [...]

Verb

bruit (third-person singular simple present bruits, present participle bruiting, simple past and past participle bruited)

  1. (transitive, archaic in Britain, current in the US) To disseminate, promulgate, or spread news, a rumour, etc.
Conjugation
Conjugation of bruit
infinitive (to) bruit
present tense past tense
1st-person singular bruit bruited
2nd-person singular bruit, bruitest† bruited, bruitedst†
3rd-person singular bruits, bruiteth† bruited
plural bruit
subjunctive bruit bruited
imperative bruit —
participles bruiting bruited

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French bruit (“noise; report, rumour”), from Old French bruit (“noise; sounds”); see further at etymology 1.[2]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbɹuːi/, /bɹuːˈiː/, /bɹuːt/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈbɹui/, /bɹuˈi/, /bɹut/
  • Hyphenation: bru‧it; not hyphenated if pronounced as a single syllable

Noun

bruit (plural bruits)

  1. (medicine) An abnormal sound in the body heard on auscultation (for example, through using a stethoscope); a murmur. [from 19th c.]
    • 1835 February 14, F[rançois] Magendie, “Physiology. Lectures on the Physical Conditions of the Tissues of the Body, as Applied to the Explanation of the Vital Phenomena. […] Lecture XVIII.”, in Thomas Wakley, editor, The Lancet, volume I, number 598, London: […] Mills & Co., […], ISSN 0140-6736, OCLC 1113355985, page 697, column 1:
      Gentlemen,—At the close of my last lecture I asserted that the bruit of the heart does not reside in the organ itself, that is to say, is not produced by any mechanism in the interior of the heart, or by a concurrence of circumstances independent of the surrounding organs. I showed you this clearly in the heart of the swan, whose sternum we removed. Upon opening the pericardium and placing the ear close to the heart, or even employing the stethoscope, no bruit or sound of any kind was to be distinguished.
    • 1838 October 1, “Researches on the Cause of the Abnormal Auscultatory Sounds in the Large Arteries, &c. By M. Beau.”, in James Johnson and Henry James Johnson, editors, The Medico-chirurgical Review, and Journal of Practical Medicine, volume 29 (New Series), number 18, London: S. Highley, […], OCLC 659155566, page 572, column 1:
      Besides chlorosis, there are several analogous affections, especially such as proceed from large losses of blood, in which the arterial bruits are generally very distinctly perceptible. In all these cases the existence of the bruits coincides with a more than ordinary fulness of the pulse: when this ceases, the bruits become invariably less and less manifest. [Translated from the Archives Generales de Medecine.]
    • 1879 October, “The Seat of the So-called Anæmic Bruit of the Cardiac Base”, in I[saac] Minis Hays, editor, The American Journal of the Medical Sciences, volume LXXVIII (New Series), number CLVI, Philadelphia, Pa.: Henry C[harles] Lea, ISSN 0002-9629, OCLC 192112627, page 565:
      The bruit in the pulmonary artery is always accompanied by the jugular bruit. In cases where the mitral valve is affected, we are sure to meet with two other bruits: one of which is in the pulmonary artery, and the other in the jugular veins. [Summarized from the London Medical Record, 15 June 1879.]
    • 1953, William Likoff; John H. Davie, “The Normal Heart”, in Franklin C[arl] Massey, editor, Clinical Cardiology, Baltimore, Md.: The Williams & Wilkins Company, OCLC 2904503, page 111:
      The recognition and designation of a murmur as functional is a frontal challenge, for there is no absolute means of proof. The bruit is located most commonly at the pulmonic area, is of faint intensity, and uniform pitch.
    • 2013, Barbara Aehlert, “Atrial Rhythms”, in ECGs Made Easy, 5th edition, St. Louis, Mo.: Elsevier Mosby, →ISBN, page 117, column 1:
      Check for carotid bruits by listening to each carotid artery with a stethoscope. A bruit is a blowing or rushing sound that is created by the turbulence within the vessel. If a bruit is heard, do not perform this procedure.
Translations

References
  1. “bruit, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. “bruit, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2016; “bruit, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. “bruit, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2016; “bruit, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

French

Etymology

From Old French bruit, used as a noun of the past participle form of bruire (“to roar”), from a Proto-Romance alteration (by association with braire (“to bray; to cry out, shout out”)) of Latin rugītus (“brayed; bellowed, roared; rumbled”) (compare Vulgar Latin *brugitus, from Latin *brūgere). Compare also Spanish ruido, Portuguese ruído, and French rut.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /bʁɥi/
  • audio(file)

Noun

bruit m (plural bruits)

  1. a noise
    Synonym: (Louisiana) hélas
  2. a rumor or report

Derived terms

Descendants
  • → English: bruit

Further reading

Anagrams

Old French

Etymology

From the past participle of bruire (“to roar”), or from Vulgar Latin *brūgitus, from Latin *brūgere, an alteration of Latin rugītus (“brayed; bellowed, roared; rumbled”), from rugīre, the present active infinitive of rugiō (“to bray; to bellow, roar; to rumble”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewg- (“to belch; to roar”).

Noun

bruit m (oblique plural bruiz or bruitz, nominative singular bruiz or bruitz, nominative plural bruit)

  1. noise; sounds
    Synonym: noise

Descendants
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