bromide

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See also: Bromide

English

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WOTD – 24 April 2009

Etymology

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From brom- +‎ -ide. First used in the sense “dull person” by Gelett Burgess.[1] Figurative sense ("platitude") by extending the medicating sense through the metaphor of pacifying or placating.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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bromide (plural bromides)

  1. (inorganic chemistry) A binary compound of bromine and some other element or radical.
    • 1894, Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, The Black Monk‎[2], published 1917:
      “How fortunate Buddha, Mahomed, and Shakespeare were that their kind relations and doctors did not cure them of their ecstasy and their inspiration,” said Kovrin. “If Mahomed had taken bromide for his nerves, had worked only two hours out of the twenty-four, and had drunk milk, that remarkable man would have left no more trace after him than his dog. […] ”
  2. (by extension)
    1. A dull person with conventional thoughts.
      Antonym: sulphite
      My adviser at college was a bromide who had not had an original thought in years.
      • 1906, Frank Gelett Burgess, Are You A Bromide?‎[3]:
        The bromide conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal, and arbitrary.
    2. A platitude.
      Synonyms: platitude; see also Thesaurus:saying
      We hoped the speech would include reassurances, but instead it was merely one bromide after another.
      • 1974, Murray Newton Rothbard, “What the State Is Not”, in Anatomy of the State:
        No organicist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide that "we are all part of one another," must be permitted to obscure this basic fact.
      • 2013, Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries, London: Granta Books, published 2014, →ISBN, page 569:
        Gascoigne was annoyed by this. ‘Well, I wish you luck, Mr. Lauderback, in bringing Mr. Carver to justice,’ he said.
        ‘Spare the bromide,’ Lauderback snapped. ‘Talk to me plain.’
        (Note: As The Luminaries is set in 1866, this usage represents an unintentional anachronism.)
      • 2020 June 2, Thomas L. Friedman, “America, We Break It, It’s Gone”, in New York Times‎[4]:
        Certainly not Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who is clearly the Rupert Murdoch of his generation. He’s always justifying his cowardly choices with vacuous bromides about “free speech,” but he’s obviously just in it for the money — no matter how much his platform is used to destroy our democracy.
  3. (dated) A dose of bromide taken as a sedative, or to reduce sexual appetite.
  4. (photography) A print made on bromide paper.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Gelett Burgess (1906) Are You A Bromide?‎[1]

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Probably borrowed. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˌbroːˈmi.də/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: bro‧mi‧de
  • Rhymes: -idə

Noun

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bromide f (uncountable)

  1. (inorganic chemistry) bromide
  2. bromide (sedative)

Derived terms

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