Word of the day! 8-20-08

Today's Word
bruit \BROOT\, transitive verb:To report; to noise abroad.

"The first originated with a professor of government who, it was bruited, had always succeeded in predicting the outcome of presidential-year elections.-- William F. Buckley Jr., "We didn't tell you so", National Review, November 29, 2004

"An attack on Iraq has been bruited about ever since President Bush invoked an axis of evil in his State of the Union address to Congress in January.-- Joyce Appleby and Ellen Carol Dubois, "Congress must reassert authority to declare war", The Record (Bergen County, NJ), September 20, 2002

"Since his family was so very wealthy, having an accumulated fortune of many years, he did not have to work for a living, and thus he could -- and did -- devote himself to various and sundry dissipations and pleasures, especially drink (in fact it was widely bruited about, that in his younger years, he was alcoholic).-- Dorothy Belle Pollack, "A fairy tale for the modern day", The Record (Bergen County, NJ), September 13, 2004

Bruit comes from Old French, from the past participle of bruire, "to roar."