brume

See also: brumé and brumë

English

WOTD – 18 January 2006

Etymology

Borrowed from French brume, from Latin brūma (“winter solstice; winter; winter cold”). Brūma is derived from brevima, brevissima (“shortest”), the superlative of brevis (“brief; short”) (the winter solstice being the shortest day of the year), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus (“brief, short”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹuːm/
• Rhymes: -uːm

Noun

brume (countable and uncountable, plural brumes)

1. (literary) Mist, fog, vapour.
   • 1972, All around their bubble of stupidity I could feel the brume of the dragon. — John Gardner, Grendel (André Deutsch 1972, p. 77)

Related terms

• brumous
• brumal
• brumate

Anagrams

• umber, umbre

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French

Etymology

From Old French brume, borrowed from Latin brūma (“winter”), possibly through the intermediate of Old Occitan bruma.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʁym/

• audio:

  (file)

Noun

brume f (plural brumes)

1. mist, haze, fog

Related terms

• Brumaire

Descendants

• → English: brume

Further reading

• “brume”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

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Italian

Noun

brume f

1. plural of bruma

Anagrams

• rumbe, umbre