brute

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See also: Brute and brüte

English

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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From Middle French brut, from Old French brut, from Latin brūtus (“dull, stupid, insensible”), an Oscan loanword, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús), Persian گران (gerân) and Sanskrit गुरु (gurú) (English guru).

Adjective

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brute (comparative more brute, superlative most brute)

  1. Without reason or intelligence (of animals). [from 15th c.]
    a brute beast
  2. Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans). [from 16th c.]
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
      A creature […] not prone / And brute as other creatures, but endued / With sanctity of reason.
  3. Unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless. [from 16th c.]
    the brute earth; the brute powers of nature
  4. Crude, unpolished. [from 17th c.]
  5. Strong, blunt, and spontaneous.
    I punched him with brute force.
  6. Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless, without intelligence or reason.
    brute violence
Derived terms
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Translations
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Noun

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brute (plural brutes)

  1. (archaic) An animal seen as being without human reason; a senseless beast. [from 17th c.]
    • 1714, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees:
      they laid before them how unbecoming it was the Dignity of such sublime Creatures to be sollicitous about gratifying those Appetites, which they had in common with Brutes, and at the same time unmindful of those higher qualities that gave them the preeminence over all visible Beings.
    • 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 218:
      ‘That animal has a charmed life,’ he said; ‘but you can say this only of brutes in this country. No man - you apprehend me? - no man here bears a charmed life.’
    • 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.17:
      But if he lives badly, he will, in the next life, be a woman; if he (or she) persists in evil-doing, he (or she) will become a brute, and go on through transmigrations until at last reason conquers.
  2. A person with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person, particularly one who is dim-witted. [from 17th c.]
    One of them was a hulking brute of a man, heavily tattooed and with a hardened face that practically screamed "I just got out of jail."
    • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 2:
      She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had expected to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven, burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
  3. (film, television) A kind of powerful spotlight.
    • 1976, A. Arthur Englander, Paul Petzold, Filming for Television, page 191:
      For a scene like the Highgate exhumation night sequence suitable equipment would consist of: two brutes on Molevators, three 10 K lights also on Molevators and, for good measure, two 5 Ks, four 2 Ks, two pups (1000 W), two North lights […]
    • 1999, Des Lyver, Graham Swainson, Basics of Video Lighting, page 103:
      At the other extreme, with limitless budgets all they have to do is dream up amazing lighting rigs to be constructed and operated by the huge team of gaffers and sparks, with their generators, discharge lights, flags, gobos and brutes.
  4. (archaic, UK, Cambridge University slang) One who has not yet matriculated.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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brute (third-person singular simple present brutes, present participle bruting, simple past and past participle bruted)

  1. (transitive) To shape (diamonds) by grinding them against each other.

Etymology 2

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Verb

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brute (third-person singular simple present brutes, present participle bruting, simple past and past participle bruted)

  1. Obsolete spelling of bruit.

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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brute

  1. inflection of bruut:
    1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
    2. definite neuter singular attributive
    3. plural attributive

French

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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brute f sg

  1. feminine singular of brut

Noun

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brute f (plural brutes)

  1. brute (animal lacking in reason, intelligence and sensibility)
  2. person without reason, person devoid of reason
  3. bully (one who imposes his will on others using violence)
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Further reading

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Anagrams

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Italian

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Adjective

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brute f pl

  1. feminine plural of bruto

Anagrams

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Latin

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Adjective

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brūte

  1. vocative masculine singular of brūtus
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