brusque

Forms

brusque (plural brusques)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian brusco (“sharp, tart, rough”), an adjectival use of the Italian noun of the same form naming butcher's broom, a prickly shrub.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Italian adjective was used of wine (about 1340) and figuratively (1300–1325).^[2]

The noun probably goes back, like Old Occitan brusc (“heather”), to Late Latin bruscus (“butcher's broom”), recorded in medieval texts from the 9th century;^[2][6] this is explained as a crossing of ruscum (“butcher's broom”) with the gloss word brūcus (“heather”), the source of bruyère.^[2][3][7] Bloch and Wartburg keep it apart from bruscum (“knot on the maple”), the source of brosse;^[3][2] Rey finds that derivation less likely on semantic grounds but not impossible.^[3][2] Littré listed older guesses, from Old High German or from Celtic, before preferring a Latin origin.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

It was first used of a sharp, tart grape or wine: Rey and the Grand Robert date this to 1373, and Bloch and Wartburg note vin brusque already in 1313 in a translation from Italian.^[2][4][5][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “tart” of wine lasted from the 14th to the 18th century.^[2] In the 16th century the word meant “quick and lively”, of a person from 1549 and also of things and events, and it carried both bad and good shades such as “rough, strange”, “lively, jaunty” and “bold, brave”.^[2][4][3] Its modern value, quick and without care, with a touch of roughness, was fixed in the 17th century.^[2][3] The sense “sudden, unforeseen” is dated by the Petit Robert to the early 19th century.^[9] English borrowed it in the 1650s.^[10]

Timeline

• 1313 – Vin brusque is found in a translation from Italian.^[3]
• 1373 – It is used of a tart wine.^[2][4]
• 1534 – The adverb brusquement appears.^[2]
• 1549 – It is used of a quick, lively person.^[2][4][9]
• 1589 – The verb brusquer appears.^[3]
• 1650s – English borrows it as brusque.^[10]
• 1668 – Molière uses brusquerie.^[3]
• Early 19th century – The sense “sudden” appears.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Acting quickly and somewhat roughly, abrupt, curt: une réponse brusque.^{[9][11][1][5]}
2. Sudden, unexpected, with nothing to announce it: une brusque averse.^[9][11][5]

Word family

• brusquement
• brusquer
• brusquerie

Related words

• brusc
• bruyère
• Italian brusco
• English brusque

Usage notes

Larousse also records a masculine noun brusque, an old quick French dance in 3/4 time, close to the jig.^[11] Wiktionary gives brusc as a doublet.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
4. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d Académie française (1992–2024), Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, 9th ed., Paris: Académie française / Fayard / Imprimerie nationale
6. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 1, 575b
7. ^ Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
8. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)