Brent

See also: brent

English

The river Brent at Hanwell in London

Etymology

English surname from placenames in Devon and Somerset, from Old English brant (“steep”), referring to hills. Compare Brents.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹɛnt/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Proper noun

Brent (countable and uncountable, plural Brents)

1. A habitational surname from Old English.
   • 2020 June 12, Anna Bahney, “The new rules of buying and selling a house in a coronavirus world”, in CNN Business‎^[1]:

     Liz Brent, broker at Go Brent in Maryland and Washington, DC, said she’s spent the past few months changing how she presents properties by emphasizing photographs, 3-D tours, and video vignettes for homes online.

2. A male given name transferred from the surname, of 20th century and later usage.
3. A placename:
   1. A housing estate in Polperro parish, Cornwall, England (OS grid ref SX2150).
   2. A small river in Greater London, England, which joins the Thames at Brentford.
      • 2023, Zadie Smith, The Fraud, Hamish Hamilton, page 189:

        Only by the wet flapping of a barnacle goose did she know she now approached the River Brent, obscured as it was by a brickworks and yet more houses.

   3. A London borough in Greater London, England, created in 1965 from the merger of the boroughs of Wembley and Willesden.
   4. A community in Nipissing District, Ontario, Canada, named after Brentwood, England.
   5. A place in the United States:
      1. A city in Bibb County, Alabama.
      2. A census-designated place in Escambia County, Florida.
      3. An unincorporated community in Monroe County, Georgia.
      4. A ghost town in Pemiscot County, Missouri.
      5. A census-designated place in Sequoyah County, Oklahoma.

Derived terms

• Brent Cross
• Brentford
• Brentham
• Brentism
• Brent Knoll
• East Brent
• South Brent