bruise

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English bruisen, brusen, brosen, brisen, bresen, from a merger of Old English brȳsan, brīesan (“to bruise; crush”), from Proto-Germanic *brausijaną, *brūsijaną (“to break; crumble; crack”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrews- (“to break”), which provided the current sense of the word; and Anglo-Norman bruiser, bruser (“to break, smash, shatter”), from Gaulish *brus- (compare Old Irish brúu (“I shatter, smash”)), from Proto-Celtic *bruseti (“to break”), from the same Proto-Indo-European root, which provided the form.

Cognate with Scots brizz, German brausen (“to roar; boom; pound”), Old English brosnian (“to crumble, fall apart”), Dutch broos (“brittle”), German Brosame (“crumb”), dialectal Norwegian brøysk (“breakable”), Latin frustum (“bit, scrap”), Old Church Slavonic бръснути (brŭsnuti, “to rake”), Albanian breshër (“hail”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) enPR: bro͞oz, IPA(key): /bɹuːz/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Homophone: brews
  • Rhymes: -uːz

Verb

bruise (third-person singular simple present bruises, present participle bruising, simple past and past participle bruised)

  1. (transitive) To strike (a person), originally with something flat or heavy, but now specifically in such a way as to discolour the skin without breaking it.
  2. (transitive) To damage the skin of (fruit), in an analogous way.
  3. (intransitive) Of fruit, to gain bruises through being handled roughly.
    Bananas bruise easily.
  4. (intransitive) To become bruised.
    I bruise easily.
  5. (intransitive) To fight with the fists; to box.
    • Thackeray
      Bruising was considered a fine, manly, old English custom.

Derived terms

Translations

A bruise (def. 1) caused by a handrail
A bruise (def. 2) on a quince

Noun

bruise (plural bruises)

  1. (medicine) A purplish mark on the skin due to leakage of blood from capillaries under the surface that have been damaged by a blow.
  2. A dark mark on fruit caused by a blow to its surface.

Synonyms

Translations

Anagrams

Dutch

Verb

bruise

  1. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of bruisen

Irish

Noun

bruise f sg

  1. genitive singular of bruis (“brush; pubic hair”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
bruise bhruise mbruise
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

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