Translation
head of livestock; brute, brutish person
Word origin
From Latin brutus, meaning heavy, dull and without reason, which is how Roman writers described animals as against people. English brute and brutal come from the same word, and so does the cognomen of the Brutus who killed Caesar.
- Origin
- Latin
- Root
- brutus
- English cognates
- brute, brutal
Examples
.
The farmer sold ten head of cattle in the town.
.
He behaved like a brute and everyone feared him.
.
The livestock are drinking at the river.
Two registers in one root, and they pull in different directions. In farming prose is a head of livestock, a beast counted in the herd, and the collective o is the herd itself. In insult it is a brute: a person behaving as though reason had never reached them. Context sorts it out instantly, since a farmer counting is not accusing anyone of anything.
Keep it apart from besto, which is the neutral word for any animal at all, from a mouse to a whale. carries the Latin judgement in it: dull, heavy, unreasoning. A is a fact of biology, a is either a farm asset or a verdict on someone's manners.
And it has nothing whatever to do with , noise, however much the two look alike on the page. is from an entirely separate root meaning a roar or a din; bruta is brutish; brua is noisy. One letter, two unrelated families, and a mistake worth making once in a notebook rather than out loud.
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bruto: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "bruto" (head of livestock; brute, brutish person): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 41.