brutalize

Etymology

It is formed from English brutal + -ize.^[2][3][4][5] The Shorter Oxford compares French brutaliser,^[6] which Johnson (1755) gave as the source of the intransitive verb.^[7] The adjective goes back to Latin brūtus (“heavy, dull, stupid”),^[4][2] which Etymonline says is said to be an Oscan word, from Proto-Indo-European *gwere- (“heavy”).^[4] An earlier verb was brutify, from the 1660s, from brutifier.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make brutal or inhuman: before 1704, in T. Brown's "To Lumenissa", printed in 1705.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged has about 1704,^[3] and Dictionary.com 1695–1705,^[5] while Etymonline's first date is only 1740.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first senses are about what happens to a person's nature: to make someone brutal, or from 1716, in Addison's Freeholder, to live or become like a brute.^[2] Johnson (1755) entered both, quoting Addison on a man who, carried to the Cape of Good Hope, "brutalized" with his countrymen.^[7] Treating someone with brutality came much later: the OED has it from 1879, in Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey, and the Shorter Oxford from the late 19th century.^[2][6] This sense stands beside the older one in current dictionaries.^[8][9][10] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records a figurative use, distorting something so that it loses its value.^[3]

Timeline

• before 1704 – to render brutal or inhuman.^[2][3]
• 1716 – intransitive, to live or become like a brute.^[2]
• 1879 – to treat as a brute, or brutally.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To make someone cruel, harsh or unfeeling, especially through repeated exposure to violence: Years at the front had brutalized the young sergeant.^[8][10][3]
2. To treat someone with cruelty: Guards brutalized the prisoners for years.^{[8][9][10][3]}
3. To alter or distort something so as to reduce or destroy its value.^[3]
4. To become brutal, or to live like a brute.^[9][2][6]

Word family

• brutalization

Related words

• brutal
• brute
• brutality

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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.
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ a b c Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press