brute

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• enPR: bro͞ot, IPA^(key): /bɹuːt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːt

Adjective

brute (comparative more brute, superlative most brute)

1. Without reason or intelligence (of animals). [from 15th c.]

   a brute beast

2. Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans). [from 16th c.]
   • Milton

     A creature […] not prone / And brute as other creatures, but endued / With sanctity of reason.

3. Being unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless. [from 16th c.]

   the brute earth; the brute powers of nature

4. Crude, unpolished. [from 17th c.]
   • Sir Walter Scott

     a great brute farmer from Liddesdale

5. Strong, blunt, and spontaneous.

   I punched him with brute force.

6. Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless.

   brute violence

7. Inexplicable
   • 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.

Noun

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. A person 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."

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter III:

     She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.

3. (archaic, Britain, Cambridge University slang) One who has not yet matriculated.

Verb

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

1. Obsolete spelling of bruit

Anagrams

• buret, rebut, tuber

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

brute

1. Inflected form of bruut

Adjective

brute

1. feminine singular of brut

Noun

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.

Further reading

• “brute” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• buter, rebut, tuber

Adjective

brute f pl

1. Feminine plural of adjective bruto.

Anagrams

• turbe

Adjective

brūte

1. vocative masculine singular of brūtus