brusque

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The Word of the Day for December 30 is:=20

brusque   \BRUSK\   adjective
          1 : markedly short and abrupt=20
    *2 : blunt in manner or speech often to the point of ungracious hars=
hness=20

Example sentence:
          Her brusque manner, often mistaken by others as unfriendliness=
, is actually caused by extreme shyness.

Did you know?
          We borrowed "brusque" from French in the 1600s. The French, in=
 turn, had borrowed it from Italian, where it was spelled "brusco" and m=
eant "tart." And the Italian term came from "bruscus," the Medieval Lati=
n name for butcher's-broom, a shrub whose bristly leaf-like twigs have l=
ong been used for making brooms. English speakers initially used "brusqu=
e" to refer to a tartness in wine, but  the word soon came to denote a h=
arsh and stiff manner -- which is just what you might expect of a word b=
ristling with associations to stiff, scratchy brooms.=20





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