Where Does Brusquely Come from?

We borrowed "brusque" from French in the 1600s. The French, in turn, had borrowed it from Italian, where it was spelled "brusco" and meant "tart." And the Italian term came from "bruscus," the Medieval Latin name for butcher's-broom, a shrub whose bristly leaf-like twigs have long been used for making brooms.

Is being brusque bad?

Brusqueness doesn't make you a bad person, it just makes you come across as curt and unfriendly. The root of both brusqueness and brusque is the Italian brusco, which means "sharp, tart, or rough."

What is another word for brusquely?

Some common synonyms of brusque are bluff, blunt, crusty, curt, and gruff. While all these words mean "abrupt and unceremonious in speech and manner," brusque applies to a sharpness or ungraciousness.