Brigade

How to spell brigade

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce brigade

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does brigade mean?

1. nounA large body of troops, or any organised group of people acting together for a common purpose.

Brigade in a sentence

• The fire brigade arrived within minutes of the alarm.

• His infantry brigade was deployed to the eastern front.

Where does brigade come from?

Language of origin: Italian

Brigade entered English in the seventeenth century from French brigade, which the French had borrowed from the Italian brigata, meaning 'a company' or 'a troop' of people banded together. That Italian noun grew from briga, meaning 'strife' or 'quarrel', since an armed band was originally a group gathered for a fight. The same briga root also gave us 'brigand', the wandering robber, and 'brig', a type of ship once favoured by such raiders. Over time brigade settled into its military sense of a large body of soldiers, and from there it spread to organised civilian groups such as the fire brigade. The spelling keeps the French and Italian shape intact, so the trap for writers is simply the unstressed first syllable, where the 'i' can be mistaken for an 'e'.

How the word is built

• brigad- (from Italian brigata: a company or troop)
• -e