brit

Meanings

Verb

• To break in pieces; divide.
• To bruise; indent.
• To fall out or shatter (as overripe hops or grain).
• To fade away; alter.

Noun

• One of the young of herrings, sprats, etc.
• One of the tiny crustaceans, of the genus Calanus, that are part of the diet of right whales.
• brit milah

Origin

• From Middle English brytten, brutten, from Old English brittian, bryttian, from Proto-Germanic *brutjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewd-. Cognate with Icelandic brytja, Swedish bryta, Danish bryde, and outside the Germanic family with Albanian brydh. Related to brytta, brēotan.
• Probably from Middle English bret or birt, applied to a different kind of fish. See bret.
• Short for brit milah.