brasser

English

Pronunciation

• (Ireland) IPA: /brăzər/

Noun

brasser (plural brassers)

1. (Dublin, slang) prostitute
   • 1987, Roddy Doyle, The Commitments, King Farouk, Dublin:

     1. The brassers, yeh know wha' I mean. The gee. Is tha' why?

     2. Yeh know the way they're The Byrds an' Bird is another name for a girl, righ'? —Couldn't we be The Brassers? It was a great name.

   • 1991, Roddy Doyle, The Van, Secker & Warburg (ISBN: 0-436-20052-X):

     Don't misunderstand me, compadre, he said. Not just women. All men are brassers as well.

   • 2005, Raymond Hickey, Dublin English: evolution and change, John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 138:

     Among the devices in the word formation morphology of Dublin English the most striking and productive must be the addition of -er /-ər/ (more rarely -ers) to stems...Examples: ...brasser 'prostitute, shameless female'...

   • 2006, Benjamin Black, Christine Falls, Picador, page 174:

     "Oh, and all the brassers knew Dolly Moran," he said. Quirke nodded. Brassers were whores, he assumed, but how? Brass nails, rhyming with tails, or was it something to do with screws?

   • 2011, Tony Black, Paying For It, page 167:

     "Sex workers? Jesus, even the brassers have gone PC," I said to the screen.

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio (Paris)

  (file)

Etymology

From Old French bracer, from brace ‘malt’, from Gaulish bracem (Pliny) (compare Scottish Gaelic braich, Welsh brag), from Proto-Indo-European *mr̥ke/o, *morko (compare Latin marcēre ‘to wither, droop’, North Frisian marig ‘tallow’, Lithuanian mer̃kti ‘to soak’, Ossetian marg ‘poison’).

Verb

brasser

1. To brew (i.e. beer)
2. (culture) To intermingle

Conjugation

   Conjugation of brasser (see also Appendix:French verbs)

		simple			compound
infinitive		brasser			avoir brassé
gerund		en brassant			en ayant brassé
present participle		brassant
past participle		brassé
person		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il	nous	vous	ils
simple tenses	present	brasse	brasses	brasse	brassons	brassez	brassent
	imperfect	brassais	brassais	brassait	brassions	brassiez	brassaient
	past historic1	brassai	brassas	brassa	brassâmes	brassâtes	brassèrent
	future	brasserai	brasseras	brassera	brasserons	brasserez	brasseront
	conditional	brasserais	brasserais	brasserait	brasserions	brasseriez	brasseraient
compound tenses	present perfect	Use the present tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect	Use the imperfect tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	past anterior1	Use the past historic tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	future perfect	Use the future tense of avoir followed by the past participle
	conditional perfect	Use the conditional tense of avoir followed by the past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il	que nous	que vous	qu’ils
simple tenses	present	brasse	brasses	brasse	brassions	brassiez	brassent
	imperfect1	brassasse	brassasses	brassât	brassassions	brassassiez	brassassent
compound tenses	past	Use the present subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
	pluperfect1	Use the imperfect subjunctive of avoir followed by the past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
		—	brasse	—	brassons	brassez	—
1literary tenses

Derived terms

• brassage
• brasserie
• brasseur