brutality

Etymology

It is formed from English brutal + -ity;^[2][3][4][5] the OED and the Shorter Oxford compare French brutalité,^[2][4] which Johnson gave as its source.^[6] The adjective is formed from Latin brūtus (“heavy, dull, stupid, insensible”), the source of brute, with the suffix -al;^[2][3] Etymonline takes it through Old French brutal.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Brutish ignorance, a want of intelligence like that of the animals: 1550, in a sermon of Hugh Latimer, a sense found only in the mid-16th century.^[2][4] Etymonline gives the 1540s for "the quality of resembling a brute",^[3] and Merriam-Webster dates the general sense to 1550.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word first described people as like the beasts in their lack of reason (1550), later also in their sensuality (1603).^[2] The main modern sense, inhuman behaviour or savage cruelty, followed in 1633,^[2][3] part of a wider pattern in English of describing violent action in terms of animals since the early 17th century.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as savageness, churlishness or inhumanity.^[6] Coarse incivility, violent roughness of manners, is recorded from 1709, in Steele's Tatler,^[2] and the literal sense "the condition of the brutes", living like an animal, from 1711, in Addison's Spectator.^[2][3] A brutality, a single brutal act, is recorded from the late 19th century.^[4]

Timeline

• 1550 – want of intelligence, brutish ignorance (obsolete).^[2][4]
• 1603 – sensuality, likeness to the brutes.^[2]
• 1633 – inhumanity, savage cruelty; an inhuman action.^[2][3]
• 1709 – coarse incivility, violent roughness of manners.^[2]
• 1711 – the state or condition of the brutes.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality of being brutal; savage cruelty or ruthlessness: the brutality of the regime.^[7][9][4]
2. A brutal act or course of action: The report lists the brutalities suffered by the prisoners.^[7][9][4]
3. (obsolete, 1550s) Brutish ignorance; want of intelligence.^[2][4]

Related words

• brute
• brutal
• brutalize
• brutish

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
9. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin