From Middle French brut, from Old French brut, from Latin brūtus (“dull, stupid, insensible”), an Oscan loanword, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús), Persian گران (gerân) and Sanskrit गुरु (gurú) (English guru).
Meanings
Without reason or intelligence (of animals).
a brute beast
Characteristic of unthinking animals; senseless, unreasoning (of humans).
A creature […] not prone / And brute as other creatures, but endued / With sanctity of reason. 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
Unconnected with intelligence or thought; purely material, senseless.
the brute earth; the brute powers of nature
Crude, unpolished.
a great brute farmer from Liddesdale 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:
Strong, blunt, and spontaneous; being purely physical in nature.
The two Gladiators, Kreugas and Damoxenos, a subject from Pausanias, is another work in the same grand style. There is a want of nobility both in the countenances and forms of the combatants, and the expression of brute strength is too little relieved by that of courage arid heroism. The gentlemen of the fancy too find fault with the attitudes, as contrary to the rules of boxing ; a fault to be excused in consideration of the want in Rome of an establishment like Fives' court in London. 1820, Floyd Lavern Darrow, The North American Review, Cummings and Hilliard, page 380:
When Mr. Chalmers refused to O. K. the sacrifice of all-round performance to mere brute might, he saved the owner of the 3400 r. p. m. 1916, Floyd Lavern Darrow, Kansas Farmer, Kansas Farmer Company, pages 136-137:
The rest of the massive figure gives one idea, strength in perfect repose ; the countenance, in its varied expression, is the soul of the whole. This is the more evident, because the expression in the human-headed lions and bulls is precisely the same. The animal-symbol must have been altogether subordinate, because it varies, without varying in the least that expression of mind which arrests the gazer. When brute force is meant to be represented, it is figured in all its fierceness, as in the colossal lion with vast wide-open jaws, found in one of the temples at Nimrud. It expresses devouring fierceness and rage, and these alone. Instead of that calm human head, are the vast jaws outstretched, as if ready to devour, and purposely disproportioned for magnitude to the rest of the colossal figure, because the object was to express terrible fierceness. 1868, Edward Bouverie Pusey, Daniel the Prophet, Nine Lectures, James Parker, Printing-Press of the Devonport Society, page 114:
I got the door open through brute force.
Brutal; cruel; fierce; ferocious; savage; pitiless, without intelligence or reason.
From Middle French brut, from Old French brut, from Latin brūtus (“dull, stupid, insensible”), an Oscan loanword, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús), Persian گران (gerân) and Sanskrit गुरु (gurú) (English guru).
Meanings
(archaic) An animal seen as being without human reason; a senseless beast.
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. 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.17:
“I would then never have known what minute, or by whom, I was to be attacked next. But the brutes are more chivalrous than man—they do not stoop to cowardly intrigue.” 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 96:
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. 1714, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees:
‘That animal has a charmed life,’ he said; ‘but you can say this only of brutes in this country. No man - you apprehend me? - no man here bears a charmed life.’ 1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 218:
A person with the characteristics of an unthinking animal; a coarse or brutal person, particularly one who is dim-witted.
She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had expected 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. 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 2:
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."
A kind of powerful spotlight.
For a scene like the Highgate exhumation night sequence suitable equipment would consist of: two brutes on Molevators, three 10 K lights also on Molevators and, for good measure, two 5 Ks, four 2 Ks, two pups (1000 W), two North lights […] 1976, A. Arthur Englander, Paul Petzold, Filming for Television, page 191:
At the other extreme, with limitless budgets all they have to do is dream up amazing lighting rigs to be constructed and operated by the huge team of gaffers and sparks, with their generators, discharge lights, flags, gobos and brutes. 1999, Des Lyver, Graham Swainson, Basics of Video Lighting, page 103:
(UK, archaic, qualifier:Cambridge University slang) One who has not yet matriculated.
fi elukka (animal destitute of human reason) · sga brúit (brutal person) · ga ainmhí (animal destitute of human reason) · sv odjur (animal destitute of human reason) · gd ainmhidh (animal destitute of human reason) · el θηρίο (animal destitute of human reason) · ota حیوان (brutal person) · el σκυλί (brutal person) · de Vieh (animal destitute of human reason) · pt besta (animal destitute of human reason) · el ζώο (animal destitute of human reason) · he בהמה (brutal person) · io bruto (brutal person) · io bruto (animal destitute of human reason) · hy կենդանի (animal destitute of human reason) · sw nunda (brutal person) · pl brutal (brutal person) · mi nau(w)hea (brutal person) · gd brùid (brutal person) · da bæst (animal destitute of human reason) · es bruto (brutal person) · de Barbar (brutal person) · es bestia (animal destitute of human reason) · yi חזיר־שלעגער (brutal person) · eo bruto (brutal person) · gd beathach (animal destitute of human reason) · pt criatura (animal destitute of human reason) · it bruto (animal destitute of human reason) · el κτήνος (animal destitute of human reason) · sv sälle (brutal person) · mk жи́вотно (animal destitute of human reason) · no bølle (brutal person) · hy գազան (animal destitute of human reason) · pl bestia (animal destitute of human reason) · mk ѕвер (brutal person) · de Rüpel (brutal person) · da udyr (animal destitute of human reason) · fi elukka (brutal person) · fi eläin (animal destitute of human reason) · hu bunkó (brutal person) · el κτηνάνθρωπος (brutal person) · el αγριάνθρωπος (brutal person) · de Unmensch (brutal person) · yi עשׂו (brutal person) · sv omänniska (brutal person) · hy անասուն (animal destitute of human reason) · ru живо́тное (animal destitute of human reason) · mk скот (brutal person) · de Tier (brutal person) · hu bestia (animal destitute of human reason) · yi שלעגער (brutal person) · gl besta brava (brutal person) · fi raakalainen (brutal person) · mi nauwhea (animal destitute of human reason) · ota حیوان (animal destitute of human reason) · pt bruto (brutal person) · it bruto (brutal person) · ga brúid (brutal person) · hy անասուն (brutal person) · es bucéfalo (brutal person) · bg скот (animal destitute of human reason) · gl bruto (brutal person) · sl grobijan (brutal person) · hu vadállat (animal destitute of human reason) · he בהמה (animal destitute of human reason) · ja 人でなし (brutal person) · gl besta (brutal person) · sv odjur (brutal person) · bg звяр (animal destitute of human reason) · ru скоти́на (brutal person) · fr brute (brutal person) · ga ainmhí (brutal person) · yi אַכזר (brutal person) · sl brdavs (brutal person) · cs surovec (brutal person) · hy գազան (brutal person)
From Middle French brut, from Old French brut, from Latin brūtus (“dull, stupid, insensible”), an Oscan loanword, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”). Cognate with Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús), Persian گران (gerân) and Sanskrit गुरु (gurú) (English guru).
Meanings
(transitive) To shape (diamonds) by grinding them against each other.