brit

See also: Brit, Brit., Brit-, and břit

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɹɪt/
• Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1

From Middle English brytten, brutten, from Old English brittian, bryttian (“to divide, dispense, distribute, rule over, possess, enjoy the use of”), from Proto-Germanic *brutjaną (“to break, divide”), from Proto-Germanic *breutaną (“to destroy, crush, break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewd- (“to break”). Cognate with Icelandic brytja (“to chop up, break in pieces, slaughter”), Swedish bryta (“to break, fracture, cut off”), Danish bryde (“to break”), and outside the Germanic family with Albanian brydh (“to make crumbly, friable, soft”). Related to Old English brytta (“dispenser, giver, author, governor, prince”), Old English brēotan (“to break in pieces, hew down, demolish, destroy, kill”).

Alternative forms

• britt
• brite (dialectal)

Verb

brit (third-person singular simple present brits, present participle britting, simple past and past participle britted)

1. (transitive) To break in pieces; divide.
2. (transitive) To bruise; indent.
3. (intransitive) To fall out or shatter (as overripe hops or grain).
4. (intransitive, dialectal) To fade away; alter.

Derived terms

• britten
• brittle

Etymology 2

Probably from Middle English bret or birt, applied to a different kind of fish. See bret.

Alternative forms

• britt

Noun

brit (plural brit)

1. One of the young of herrings, sprats, etc.
2. One of the tiny crustaceans, of the genus Calanus, that are part of the diet of right whales.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     The edges of these bones are fringed with hairy fibres, through which the Right Whale strains the water, and in whose intricacies he retains the small fish, when openmouthed he goes through the seas of brit in feeding time.

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Hebrew בְּרִית.

Alternative forms

• bris

Noun

brit (plural brits)

1. brit milah
2. A covenant, specifically that between God and the Jewish people.
   • 2000, David Golinkin, “The Whys and Hows of Conservative Halakhah”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 3, page 14:

     The second theocentric approach to observance stresses the partnership of God and man. The Torah and the mitzvot express the eternal brit or covenant made between God and the Jewish people.

   • 2005, Joel Lurie Grishaver, Jewish Values Alef to Tav, page 13:

     There is a special brit between God and the Families-of-Israel. The Torah is the story of that brit

   • 2020, Aaron Chaim HaLevi Zimmerman, Torah & Rationalism, page 120:

     When the Jews were expelled from Eretz Yisrael into galus, and were punished for their sins with the destruction of the first and second Temples, the bris between G-d and Yisrael is not ended.

Related terms

• alternative brit
• brit ben
• brit tikkun

Anagrams

• trib, Trib, BIRT, trib., Birt, birt

Albanian

Etymology

Gheg word. From Proto-Albanian *breita, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreyH- (“to pierce, cut with something sharp”). Cognate to Lithuanian bárti (“to scold, chide”), Old Irish briathar (“argument”), Old Church Slavonic брати (brati, “fight”), Welsh brwydr (“fight, struggle”).

Noun

brit f

1. scream, yell

Derived terms

• bërtas
• britmë

Hungarian

Alternative forms

• britt (archaic, nonstandard)

Etymology

From German Brite, from Latin Brītō̆nēs.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbrit]
• Rhymes: -it

Adjective

brit (not comparable)

1. British

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)

	singular	plural
nominative	brit	britek
accusative	britet	briteket
dative	britnek	briteknek
instrumental	brittel	britekkel
causal-final	britért	britekért
translative	britté	britekké
terminative	britig	britekig
essive-formal	britként	britekként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	britben	britekben
superessive	briten	briteken
adessive	britnél	briteknél
illative	britbe	britekbe
sublative	britre	britekre
allative	brithez	britekhez
elative	britből	britekből
delative	britről	britekről
ablative	brittől	britektől
non-attributive possessive – singular	brité	briteké
non-attributive possessive – plural	britéi	britekéi

Derived terms

Compound words and expressions

• brit angol
• Brit antarktiszi terület
• brit birodalom
• Brit Columbia
• Brit India
• Brit Indiai-óceáni Terület
• Brit Kelet-indiai Társaság
• Brit Nemzetközösség
• Brit Nyugat-India
• brit rövidszőrű
• brit tengerentúli területek
• Brit Virgin-szigetek
• Brit-sziget and Brit-szigetek

Related terms

• Britannia → Nagy-Britannia, Új-Britannia

Noun

brit (plural britek)

1. Briton, Brit

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)

	singular	plural
nominative	brit	britek
accusative	britet	briteket
dative	britnek	briteknek
instrumental	brittel	britekkel
causal-final	britért	britekért
translative	britté	britekké
terminative	britig	britekig
essive-formal	britként	britekként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	britben	britekben
superessive	briten	briteken
adessive	britnél	briteknél
illative	britbe	britekbe
sublative	britre	britekre
allative	brithez	britekhez
elative	britből	britekből
delative	britről	britekről
ablative	brittől	britektől
non-attributive possessive – singular	brité	briteké
non-attributive possessive – plural	britéi	britekéi

Possessive forms of brit

possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	britem	britjeim
2nd person sing.	brited	britjeid
3rd person sing.	britje	britjei
1st person plural	britünk	britjeink
2nd person plural	britetek	britjeitek
3rd person plural	britjük	britjeik

See also

• Anglia, angol, angolszász, angli
• Egyesült Királyság

Further reading

• brit in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• brit in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2026).