Part of Speech: adjective
Pronunciation: [brêsk]
Definition: Rudely curt, offensively blunt, gruff, or short with someone.
Usage: Unlike "bluff," which implies a good-hearted straightforwardness, today's word implies a dismissive and insulting gesture, "Creighton brusquely dismissed my suggestion that he address his colleagues more courteously." A sense of superiority often lies behind brusqueness, "Mandy's world crashed around her when she finally met her movie idol and asked for his autograph only to be told brusquely to get lost."
Suggested Usage: Remember, today's word is NOT spelled "brusk" despite what the weak-kneed, willy-nilly dictionaries tell you. Let's not adapt our speech to speech errors no matter how commonly they occur. The adverb is "brusquely" and the noun, "brusqueness."
Etymology: Today's is more undisguised loot from the French language, related to Italian brusco "coarse, rough," and Portuguese and Spanish brusco "rude, peevish"—all from Late Latin bruscus "butcher's broom." The Latin word may—and we emphasize 'may'—be a blend of Late Latin brucus "heather" + ruscus "butcher's broom." If so, it is related to French bruyère "heath," which comes from Late Latin *brucaria, a noun from the same word, brucus "heather." English borrowed this French word, too, though this one we at least disguised a bit as "briar."
1 : markedly short and abrupt
*2 : blunt in manner or speech often to the point of ungracious harshness
Example sentence: 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.
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