brio

From Italian brio (“finesse, talent”), from Spanish brío, ultimately from Proto-Celtic *brīgos.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹiːoʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːoʊ

brio (uncountable)

1. Vigour or vivacity.
   • 1917, Henry Handel Richardson, Australia Felix, Part II Chapter I:

     He lay tossing restlessly on a dirty old straw palliasse, and was in great pain; but greeted his friend with a dash of the old brio.

   • 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:

     And as if to undermine their authority still further, Welsh Philpott in his innocence has made the error of placing Rick beside the pulpit in the very spot from which in the past he has read us the day's lesson with such brio and persuasion.

• ribo-, biro, robi-, Biro

From French brie, named after Brie, France, from Gaulish *briga (“hill”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈbrio]
• Rhymes: -io
• Hyphenation: bri‧o

brio (accusative singular brion, plural brioj, accusative plural briojn)

1. brie

Borrowed from Italian brio.

• IPA^(key): /bʁi.jo/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o

brio m (uncountable)

1. brilliance, panache
2. (music) con brio

• avec brio

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

Derived from (or related to) the same stratum of Old Occitan briu (“wild”), from Gaulish *brīgos (“strength”), from Proto-Celtic *brīgos (“importance”). Compare Sicilian sbriguni, Spanish brío.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbri.o/
• Rhymes: -io
• Hyphenation: brì‧o

brio m (plural brii)

1. vivacity, liveliness

• → English: brio
• → French: brio

• biro, bori, orbi

From Proto-Celtic *brīgos.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɾi.ʊ/
• Rhymes: -io

brio m (plural brios)

1. pride, dignity
   • 13th century CE, Alfonso X of Castile, Don Gonçalo, pois queredes ir d’aqui pera Sevilha:

     E hūa cousa sei eu deuos / E tenho pʳ muj gram brio / E poren uolo iuro muita fⁱmas e affio / q̄ senpre auedes amorreg em juu’no ē istio

     And a thing I know of you / And which I have great pride, / And therefore I swear to you firmly and uninterruptedly / that you will die in winter or in summer.

2. bravery
   • 13th century CE, Alfonso X of Castile, O genete:

     Vi coteifes de gran brio / eno meio do estio / estar tremendo sen frio / ant’os mouros d’Azamor […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. force, impetus
   • 1295, Ramón Lorenzo, editor, La traducción gallega de la Crónica General y de la Crónica de Castilla, Ourense: I.E.O.P.F., page 674:

     Et cõ grã brio deu hũa espadada ẽno olmo que estaua ante a jgleia de Sam Johan de Burgos

     With great strength he struck with the sword an elm that was before the church of Saint John in Burgos

• Galician: brío
• Portuguese: brio

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “brio”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega

• brī, brīwo

From Proto-West Germanic *brīw (“mash, porridge”).

brīo m

1. mash (as in mashed potatoes).

• Middle High German: brîe, brî
  • German: Brei
  • Luxembourgish: Bräi
  • Yiddish: ברײַ (bray)

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese brio. Possibly from Spanish brío (“vigour”), from Old Occitan briu (“wild”), from Proto-Celtic *brīgos. Compare Galician brío.

• Rhymes: -iu
• Hyphenation: bri‧o

brio m (plural brios)

1. mettle; courage
2. zeal; vigour; vivacity
3. pride; dignity

For quotations using this term, see Citations:brio.