brute

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English [edit]

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Etymology [edit]

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

Pronunciation [edit]

Adjective [edit]

brute (comparative more brute, superlative most brute)

  1. Without reason or intelligence (of animals). [from 15th c.]
  2. Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans). [from 16th c.]
  3. Being unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless. [from 16th c.]
  4. Crude, unpolished. [from 17th c.]
    • 2006, Howard Richards; Joanna Swanger, The Dilemmas of Social Democracies: Overcoming Obstacles to a More Just World, page 45:
      The related notion that some facts are relatively more brute than others hearkens back to the ancient metaphysics of Aristotle.
  5. Strong, blunt, and spontaneous
    I punched him with brute force when he uppercut me

Translations [edit]

Without reason or intelligence (of animals)
Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans)
Being unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless
Crude, unpolished

Noun [edit]

brute (plural brutes)

  1. (now 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.
    • 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. Someone with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person. [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."
  3. (archaic, slang, UK, Cambridge University) One who has not yet matriculated.

Translations [edit]

an animal destitute of human reason
a brutal person

Derived terms [edit]

Verb [edit]

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

  1. Obsolete spelling of bruit.

Translations [edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Anagrams [edit]

Dutch [edit]

Adjective [edit]

brute

  1. the inflected formFAQ of bruut

French [edit]

Adjective [edit]

brute

  1. feminine form of brut

Noun [edit]

brute f (plural brutes)

  1. An animal lacking in reason.
  2. An animal lacking in intelligence and sensibility.
  3. (By analogy) A person without reason.
  4. One who imposes his will on others using violence - a bully.

Anagrams [edit]

Italian [edit]

Adjective [edit]

brute f pl

  1. feminine plural of bruto

Anagrams [edit]

Latin [edit]

Adjective [edit]

brūte

  1. vocative masculine singular of brūtus
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