Brisk

How to spell brisk

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce brisk

What does brisk mean?

1. adjectiveActive, quick, and full of energy.
2. adjectiveOf air or weather: cold, fresh, and invigorating.

Brisk in a sentence

• She set a brisk pace on the morning walk to the station.

• A brisk autumn wind cut across the open field.

• Trade was brisk at the market all weekend.

• The early morning air felt brisk as they loaded the car.

Where does brisk come from?

Language of origin: French

Brisk appeared in English in the late 1500s and is generally taken to be a respelling of the French brusque, which meant lively, rough, or tart, itself drawn from the Italian brusco, a word for something sharp or sour like an unripe fruit. As English speakers reshaped brusque, they softened the meaning toward briskness in the sense of quick, energetic, and invigorating rather than rudely abrupt. The two forms then split apart: English kept brusque for blunt manner and brisk for lively pace, even though they began as the same word. The origin before French is somewhat uncertain, which is why the trail back through Italian is the safest part of the story. For spelling, the helpful point is that brisk is short and phonetic, ending in the crisp -sk cluster you can hear, so the only real risk is reaching for the longer, French-looking brusque by mistake.

How the word is built

• brisk (single root; likely an English reshaping of French brusque, lively/sharp)