brunir

Inherited from Middle French brunir, from Old French brunir (“to polish, make brown”).

• IPA^(key): /bʁy.niʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

brunir

1. to brown (to become brown)
2. to burnish (to polish gold or silver etc)

This is a regular verb of the second conjugation, like finir, choisir, and most other verbs with infinitives ending in -ir. One salient feature of this conjugation is the repeated appearance of the infix -iss-.

• “brunir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• burnir

Borrowed from Frankish *brūnijan (“to polish, make resplendent”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnijaną (“to decorate, tan”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnaz (“brown”).

brunir

1. to polish (of metal, to clean and make shiny)

This verb conjugates as a second-group verb (ending in -ir, with an -iss- infix). Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• → Italian: brunire
• Middle French: brunir
  • French: brunir
• → Middle English: burnysshen, burnischen
  • English: burnish

• Godefroy, Frédéric, Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle (1881) (brunir, supplement)

From Old Galician-Portuguese bronir, from Old Occitan brunir, from Frankish *brūnijan (“to polish, make resplendent”), from Proto-Germanic *brūnijaną (“to decorate, tan”), from *brūnaz (“brown”).

• Hyphenation: bru‧nir

brunir (first-person singular present bruno, first-person singular preterite bruni, past participle brunido)

1. to burnish

   Synonym: polir

2. to smooth

   Synonym: alisar

3. (Portugal) to iron (to unwrinkle clothes with an iron)

   Synonyms: engomar, passar