Bruised

How to spell bruised

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bruised

What does bruised mean?

1. adjectiveHaving a bruise or bruises; showing discoloured, tender marks where tissue was crushed without the skin breaking.
2. adjectiveLeft hurt, deflated, or wounded in feeling or reputation.

Bruised in a sentence

• Her bruised knee turned an ugly shade of purple after the fall.

• His bruised ego needed a few days to recover after the public criticism.

• The bruised apples at the bottom of the crate were sold at a discount.

• The company emerged bruised but still solvent from the lawsuit.

Where does bruised come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The modern verb bruise grew from a blending of two older words that happened to sound alike and mean similar things. On the native side stood the Old English brysan, meaning 'to crush' or 'to pound to pieces', a word once used for grinding grain as much as for injuring the body. On the imported side stood the Old French bruisier or bruser, 'to break, smash, or shatter', which may itself trace back to a Celtic root for breaking. Through the medieval period these two streams merged in English, narrowing in sense to the familiar idea of a discolouring injury under unbroken skin. The participial form bruised simply adds the regular past ending -ed, and the silent-looking 'ui' spelling preserves the French contribution rather than the native one, which is exactly where writers occasionally stumble.

How the word is built

• bruise (to injure tissue without breaking skin)
• -ed (past tense / participial suffix)