different between brisk vs spruce

English

Etymology

Uncertain. Compare Welsh brwysg and French brusque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??sk/
• Rhymes: -?sk

Adjective

brisk (comparative brisker or more brisk, superlative briskest or most brisk)

1. Full of liveliness and activity; characterized by quickness of motion or action

   Synonyms: lively, spirited, quick

   We took a brisk walk yesterday.
2. Full of spirit of life; effervescing
3. (archaic) sparkling; fizzy

   brisk cider

4. Stimulating or invigorating.

   This morning was a brisk fall day. It wasn't cold enough for frost, but you wanted to keep moving.
5. Abrupt, curt in one's manner or in relation to others.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 15

     Her manner was brisk, and her good-breeding scarcely concealed her conviction that if you were not a soldier you might as well be a counter-jumper.

Translations

See also

• brusque

Verb

brisk (third-person singular simple present brisks, present participle brisking, simple past and past participle brisked)

1. (transitive, intransitive, often with "up") To make or become lively; to enliven; to animate.

Further reading

• brisk in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• brisk in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• brisk at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Birks, birks

Albanian

Etymology

From brej, possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *bhrisqo- (“bitter”). Compare Norwegian brisk (“bitter taste”), brisken (“bitter, sharp”), Welsh brysg, French brusque, Russian ????????? (brezgát?, “nauseate, feel disgust”), English brisk.

Noun

brisk m

1. razor
2. sharp, smart, keen, freezing cold

Lithuanian

Alternative forms

• briski

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [b?r??s?k]

Verb

brìsk

1. second-person singular imperative of bristi

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

Possibly onomatopoetic of the sound made when put on fire.

Noun

brisk m (definite singular brisken, indefinite plural briskar, definite plural briskane)

1. juniper

Synonyms

• brake, einer

Etymology 2

From Middle Low German britse, britsche, briske.

Noun

brisk m (definite singular brisken, indefinite plural briskar, definite plural briskane)

1. a wall-bound sleeping bench

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English Spruce, an alteration of Pruce (“Prussia”), from Medieval Latin, from a Baltic language, probably Old Prussian; for more, see Prussia. Spruce, spruse (1412), and Sprws (1378) were terms for commodities brought to England by Hanseatic merchants (beer, wood, leather). The tree with this name was also believed to have been native to Prussia. The adjective and verb senses ("trim, neat" and "to make trim, neat") are attested from 1594, and originate with spruce leather (1466), which was used to make a popular style of jerkins in the 1400s that was considered smart-looking.

Pronunciation

• enPR: spro?os, (US) IPA^(key): /sp?u?s/
• Rhymes: -u?s

Noun

spruce (countable and uncountable, plural spruces or spruce)

1. Any of various large coniferous evergreen trees or shrubs from the genus Picea, found in northern temperate and boreal regions; originally and more fully spruce fir.
2. (uncountable) The wood of a spruce.
3. (used attributively) Made of the wood of the spruce.

4. (obsolete) Prussian leather; pruce.

Derived terms

• black spruce (Picea mariana)
• blue spruce (Picea pungens)
• dark-bark spruce (Picea jezoensis)
• Engelmann's spruce (Picea engelmannii)
• European spruce (Picea abies)
• Koyama's spruce (Picea koyamae)
• Norway spruce (Picea abies)
• red spruce (Picea rubens)
• Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis)
• white spruce (Picea glauca)

Translations

See also

• Spruce on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Picea on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

Adjective

spruce (comparative sprucer, superlative sprucest)

1. (comparable) Smart, trim, and elegant in appearance; fastidious (said of a person).
   • 1919, William Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 31

     He had great neatness of person, and he continued to wear his spruce black coat and his bowler hat, always a little too small for him, in a dapper, jaunty manner.

   • 2012, The Economist, 13th Oct 2012, Plessey returns: Chips with everything

     The two clean rooms, where chips are made, are sprucer than a hospital theatre.

Translations

Verb

spruce (third-person singular simple present spruces, present participle sprucing, simple past and past participle spruced)

1. (usually with up) To arrange neatly; tidy up.
2. (transitive, intransitive, usually with up) To make oneself spruce (neat and elegant in appearance).
3. To tease. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

Derived terms

• spruce up

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “spruce”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Anagrams

• cusper, recups