bruise
pronunciation
How to pronounce bruise in British English:
UK [bruːz]
How to pronounce bruise in American English:
US [bruːz]
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- Noun:
- an injury that doesn't break the skin but results in some discoloration
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- Verb:
- injure the underlying soft tissue of bone of
- hurt the feelings of
- break up into small pieces for food preparation
- damage (plant tissue) by abrasion of pressure
Word Origin
- bruise
- bruise: [OE] Modern English bruise is a blend of words from two sources. The main contributor is Old English brysan, which as well as ‘bruise’ meant ‘crush to pieces’, and is related to Latin frustum ‘piece broken or cut off’. But then in the early Middle English period we begin to see the influence of the unrelated Old French verb bruisier ‘break’ and its Anglo-Norman form bruser (which in modern French has become briser).Their main effect has been on the spelling of the word, although the use of bruise for ‘break’ from the 14th to the 17th century seems to have been due to French influence too, rather than a survival of the Old English meaning: ‘Had his foot once slipped … he would have been bruised in pieces’, The most dangerous and memorable adventure of Richard Ferris 1590. Bruiser ‘large rough man’ originated in an 18th-century term for a prizefighter.=> débris
- bruise (v.)
- Old English brysan "to crush, bruise, pound," from Proto-Germanic *brusjan, from PIE root *bhreu- "to smash, cut, break up" (cognates: Old Irish bronnaim "I wrong, I hurt;" Breton brezel "war," Vulgar Latin brisare "to break"). Merged by 17c. with Anglo-French bruiser "to break, smash," from Old French bruisier "to break, shatter," perhaps from Gaulish *brus-, from the same PIE root. Related: Bruised; bruising.
- bruise (n.)
- 1540s, from bruise (v.).
Example
- 1. But that is likely to bruise results at firms that got boosts from panic-induced trading surges .
- 2. Over the following 48 hours , however , the bruise continued to spread , extending up under her eye .
- 3. The other is that it makes the west look hypocritical : all too willing to bruise muslim feelings , while protecting jewish ones by law .
- 4. Rising rates of mental illness among the young , she argues , reflect readier diagnosis , and bullying has increased because the word is now used to mean the infliction of even the slightest emotional bruise .