brusc

Forms

brusc m or n (feminine singular bruscă, masculine plural bruști, feminine/neuter plural bruște)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French brusque, one of the French neologisms of the 19th century.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin and DN also name Italian brusco, the source of the French word, as a model.^[5][6] French borrowed it in 1373 from the Italian word, which first named a thorny plant, butcher's broom, and then meant “rough, sour”.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Negulici's dictionary of 1848, where the word, spelled in the transitional alphabet, means harsh and hasty in manner and speech, glossed with Latin vehemens.^[9][2][5]

Semantic evolution

The early sense was about behaviour: rough, curt, abrupt in gestures and words;^[9][10][11] Costinescu in 1870 still defines it so.^[9][10][11] The sense “sudden, unexpected” is given beside it by Șăineanu and CADE, and became the main one: DEX 2009 has only “happening suddenly”, often used as an adverb, while DN marks the old sense “harsh, curt” as rare.^{[12][13][3][6]} The verb brusca “to treat roughly”, recorded from 1862, and the noun bruschețe “roughness of manner” belong to the first sense.^[2]

Timeline

• 1848 – first record, in Negulici's dictionary, “harsh and hasty in manner”.^[2][9]
• 1848 – bruscherie “roughness”, also in Negulici.^[2]
• 1862 – the verb brusca in Negruzzi.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu: quick and harsh in conduct, curt in speech.^[10]
• 1890 – bruschețe.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. sudden, abrupt: happening unexpectedly and all at once; often used as an adverb, “suddenly”: s-a oprit brusc “he stopped suddenly”.^[3][4]
2. (rare) Of people and their manner: curt, harsh, rough.^[6][14]

Word family

• brusca
• bruschețe

Related words

• French brusque
• Italian brusco

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. brusc
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 121
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 250
5. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. brusc
6. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. brusc
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. brusque
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 198
9. ^ a b c d Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. brusc
10. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 127
11. ^ a b Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. brusc
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 80
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. brusc
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. brusc