Chapter Brown Bess to Brutus of B by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Brumaire The celebrated 18th Brumaire (Nov. 9th, 1799) was the day on which the Directory was overthrown and Napoleon established his supremacy.

Brummagem Worthless or very inferior metallic articles made in imitation of better ones. Birmingham is the great mart and manufactory of gilt toys, cheap jewellery, imitation gems, mosaic gold, and such-like. Birmingham was called by the Romans “Bremenium.”

Brums In Stock Exchange phraseology this means the “London and North-Western Railway shares.” The Brum, i.e. the Birmingham line.

Brunehild (3 syl.) or Brunehilda. Daughter of the King of Issland, beloved by Günther, one of the two great chieftains of the Nibelungenlied or Teutonic Iliad. She was to be carried off by force, and Günther asked his friend Siegfried to help him. Siegfried contrived the matter by snatching from her the talisman which was her protector, but she never forgave him for his treachery. (Old German, bruni, coat of mail; hilt, battle.)

Brunello (in Orlando Furioso ). A deformed dwarf of Biserta, to whom King Agramant gave a ring which had the virtue to withstand the power of magic (book ii.). He was leader of the Tingitanians in the Saracen army. He also figures in Bojardo's Orlando Innamorato.

Brunswicker A native of Brunswick. (See Black Brunswicker .)

Brunt To bear the brunt. To bear the stress, the heat, and collision. The same word as “burn.” (Icelandic, bruni, burning heat, bren; Anglo-Saxon, brenning, burning.) The “brunt of a battle” is the hottest part of the fight. (Compare “fire-brand.”)

Brush The tail of a fox or squirrel, which is brushy.
   Brush away. Get along.
   Brush off. Move on.
   He brushed by me. He just touched me as he went quickly past. Hence also brush, a slight skirmish.
   All these are metaphors from brushing with a brush.
   Give it another brush. A little more attention; bestow a little more labour on it; return it to the file for a little more polish.

Brush up (To ). To renovate or revive; to bring again into use what has been neglected, as, “I must brush up my French.” When a fire is slack we brush up the hearth and then sweep clean the lower bars of the stove and stir the sleepy coals into activity.

Brut A rhyming chronicle, as the Brut d'Angleterre and Le Roman de Brut, by Wace (twelfth century). Brut is the Romance word bruit (a rumour, hence a tradition, or a chronicle based on tradition). It is by mere accident that the word resembles “Brute” or “Brutus,” the traditional king. (See next column.)

Brut d'Angleterre A chronicle of the achievements of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Arthur is described as the natural son of Uther, pendragon (or chief) of the ancient Britons. He succeeded his father, in 516, by the aid of Merlin, who gave him a magic sword, with which he conquered the Saxons, Picts, Scots, and Irish. Besides the Brut referred to, several other romances record the exploits of this heroic king. (See Arthur. )

Brute in Cambridge University slang, is a man who has not yet matriculated. The play is evident. A “man,” in college phrase, is a collegian; and, as matriculation is the sign and seal of acceptance, a scholar before that ceremony is not a “man,” and therefore only a “biped brute.”

Brute (Sir John ). A coarse, pot-valiant knight, ignobly noted for his absurdities. (Vanbrugh: The Provoked Wife.)

Brute or Brutus, in the mythological history of England, the first king of the Britons, was son of Sylvius (grandson of Ascanius and great grandson of Æneas). Having inadvertently killed his father, he first took