Brosses

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. The surname of Charles de Brosses, an eighteenth-century French magistrate and writer known for early studies of religion and language
2. Name borne by Charles de Brosses, a French judge and author of the 1700s who wrote on comparative religion and coined the term fetishism
3. A French family name associated with Charles de Brosses, an eighteenth-century parliamentary president and scholar of ancient cultures and languages

Etymology: "Brosses" is the third-person singular form of "brosse," the French verb meaning to brush, so the English word is a borrowing rather than a native formation. Its root is "brosse," a brush, which traces back to Latin "bruscia," a word for brushwood or heather, the twigs used to make rough sweeping tools. In French, the verb "brosser" came to mean to brush clothes or hair, and the noun "brosse" referred to the brush itself. The inflected form is what the rules call for here: "brosses" is the form of "brosse" used with he, she, or it, and it reflects the verb's conjugation in its source language rather than an English formation. Its history runs through French, with the Latin root behind it.

Synonyms: brush