brusque
pronunciation
How to pronounce brusque in British English:
UK [bru:sk]
How to pronounce brusque in American English:
US [brʌsk]
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- Adjective:
- marked by rude or peremptory shortness
Word Origin
- brusque
- brusque: [17] Brusque comes ultimately from the name of an unpleasant spiky shrub, the butcher’s broom, which instead of normal branches and leaves has twigs flattened into a leaflike shape, with at their ends stiff spines. The term for this in Vulgar Latin was *bruscum, which, passing into Italian as brusco, came to be used as an adjective, meaning ‘sharp, tart’. French borrowed it as brusque ‘lively, fierce’, and passed it on to English. It seems likely that English brisk [16] is derived from it.=> brisk
- brusque (adj.)
- 1650s, from French brusque "lively, fierce," from Italian adjective brusco "sharp, tart, rough," perhaps from Vulgar Latin *bruscum "butcher's broom plant."
Example
- 1. Koh could be brusque and tactless with his colleagues , though he would just as easily break into boyish giggles when something amused him .
- 2. We can find this loose shooting and brusque editing in most of nolan 's films , and so they don 't seem to me to display innovative , or particularly skilful , visual style .
- 3. The traditionally atlanticist poles felt sidelined not just by the policy implications of mr obama 's " reset " of relations with russia , but by the brusque way in which they were told to play along .
- 4. Female voters have never been too keen anyway on alex salmond , the brusque if charismatic leader of the ruling scottish nationalist party ( snp ) and first minister of the scottish government . But they are not alone in being squeamish about much of the pro-independence rhetoric .