brusque

adjective

ˈbrəsk 

variants or less commonly brusk

1

: markedly short and abrupt

a brusque reply

2

: blunt in manner or speech often to the point of ungracious harshness

was brusque with the customers

brusquely adverb

brusqueness noun

Did you know?

If you’ve ever felt swept aside by someone with a brusque manner, that makes a certain amount of etymological sense. Brusque, you see, comes ultimately from bruscus, the Medieval Latin name for butcher’s broom, a shrub whose bristly, leaf-like twigs have long been used for making brooms. Bruscus was modified to the adjective brusco in Italian, where it meant “sour” or “tart.” French, in turn, changed brusco to brusque, and the word in that form entered English in the 1600s. English speakers initially applied brusque to tartness in wine, but the word soon came to describe a harsh and stiff manner, which is just what you might expect of a word bristling with associations to stiff, scratchy brooms.

Synonyms

• abrupt
• bluff
• blunt
• crusty
• curt
• downright
• short
• short-spoken
• snippy
• unceremonious

Choose the Right Synonym for brusque

bluff, blunt, brusque, curt, crusty, gruff mean abrupt and unceremonious in speech and manner.

bluff connotes good-natured outspokenness and unconventionality.

a bluff manner

blunt suggests directness of expression in disregard of others' feelings.

a blunt appraisal

brusque applies to a sharpness or ungraciousness.

a brusque response

curt implies disconcerting shortness or rude conciseness.

a curt command

crusty suggests a harsh or surly manner sometimes concealing an inner kindliness.

a crusty exterior

gruff suggests a hoarse or husky speech which may imply bad temper but more often implies embarrassment or shyness.

puts on a gruff pose

Examples of brusque in a Sentence

She asked for a cup of coffee and received a brusque reply: “We don't have any.”

The teacher was brusque and impatient.

Recent Examples on the Web

Ishaaq says on a video call, recalling the brusque directions from a doctor. —Will Coldwell, The Dial, 3 Dec. 2024

In an extremely brusque majority opinion, the court ordered all boards of elections to comply with the black-letter law of the state election code, as written, and dispose of all undated or otherwise facially invalid ballots. —The Editors, National Review, 20 Nov. 2024

Many thought Philip to be too brusque, too unpolished, too German, too Greek, too…un-English to marry then Princess Elizabeth. —Elise Taylor, Vogue, 20 Nov. 2024

Steptoe affects to be too busy to talk with Purdy and Edwards, but his brusque façade is quickly broken down. —Damon Wise, Deadline, 16 Oct. 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from French, borrowed from Italian brusco "(of a person's manner) rough, rude, abrupt," also "(of wine, food) sharp, pungent," going back to a pre-Latin expressive base *brūsk-, denoting prickliness, roughness

Note: The many outcomes of the base *brūsk- in Italian are detailed in Lessico etimologico italiano, vol. 7, columns 972-1030. A notable early form is brusco, denoting a plant, butcher's-broom (Ruscus aculeatus), documented in northern Italy and Tuscany from the fourteenth century, and attested as Latin bruscus from the ninth century, in a collection of antidotes (the Antidotarium Sangallense —see Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch). Perhaps even earlier, if it reflects the same base, is classical Latin bruscum, a word used in Pliny's Naturalis Historia for a knot or excrescence in a maple tree.

First Known Use

circa 1639, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

brusque

adjective

ˈbrəsk 

: so short and frank in manner or speech as to be impolite

spoke in a brusque tone

brusquely adverb

brusqueness noun