bromide

bromide

See also: Bromide

English

WOTD – 24 April 2009

Etymology

From brom- +‎ -ide. First used in the sense “dull person” by Gelett Burgess.[1]Figurative sense ("platitude") by extending the medicating sense through the metaphor of pacifying or placating.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: brō'mīd, IPA^(key): /ˈbɹəʊ.maɪd/
• (US) enPR: brō'mīd, IPA^(key): /ˈbɹoʊ.maɪd/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bro‧mide

Noun

bromide (plural bromides)

1. (inorganic chemistry) A binary compound of bromine and some other element or radical.
2. A dose of bromide taken as a sedative, or to reduce sexual appetite.
   • 1894, Anton Chekhov, Constance Garnett, transl., The Black Monk‎, published 1917:

     “How fortunate Buddha, Mahomed, and Shakespeare were that their kind relations and doctors did not cure them of their ecstasy and their inspiration,” said Kovrin. “If Mahomed had taken bromide for his nerves, had worked only two hours out of the twenty-four, and had drunk milk, that remarkable man would have left no more trace after him than his dog. […] ”

3. (by extension) A dull person with conventional thoughts.

   Antonym: sulphite

   My adviser at college was a bromide who had not had an original thought in years.

   • 1906, Frank Gelett Burgess, Are You A Bromide?‎:

     The bromide conforms to everything sanctioned by the majority, and may be depended upon to be trite, banal, and arbitrary.

4. A platitude.

   Synonyms: platitude; see also Thesaurus:saying

   We hoped the speech would include reassurances, but instead it was merely one bromide after another.

   • 1974, Murray Newton Rothbard, “What the State Is Not”, in Anatomy of the State:

     No organicist metaphor, no irrelevant bromide that "we are all part of one another," must be permitted to obscure this basic fact.

   • 2020 June 2, Thomas L. Friedman, “America, We Break It, It’s Gone”, in New York Times‎:

     Certainly not Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who is clearly the Rupert Murdoch of his generation. He’s always justifying his cowardly choices with vacuous bromides about “free speech,” but he’s obviously just in it for the money — no matter how much his platform is used to destroy our democracy.

5. (photography) A print made on bromide paper.

Derived terms

• acyl bromide
• aluminium bromide, aluminum bromide
• americium bromide
• ammonium bromide
• ammonium bromide
• barium bromide
• beryllium bromide
• bibenzonium bromide
• bismuth bromide
• bromide developer
• bromide emulsion
• bromide of potassium
• bromide paper
• bromide print
• bromide printer
• bromide printing
• bromidic
• cadmium bromide
• caesium bromide, cesium bromide
• calcium bromide
• cerium bromide
• cerous bromide
• chlorobromide
• chromium bromide
• clidinium bromide
• cobalt bromide
• copper bromide
• curium bromide
• cyanogen bromide
• decamethonium bromide
• deuterium bromide
• diazobromide
• dibromide
• domiphen bromide
• dysprosium bromide
• ethidium bromide
• ethyl bromide
• ferric bromide
• germanium bromide
• glycopyrronium bromide
• gold bromide
• hafnium bromide
• hexabromide
• hexamethonium bromide
• hydrobromide
• hydrogen bromide
• indium bromide
• iodine bromide
• iodobromite
• iron bromide
• lithium bromide
• lithium bromide-dihydrate
• manganese bromide
• manganous bromide
• mercury bromide
• methyl bromide
• monobromide
• nickel bromide
• niobium bromide
• otilonium bromide
• oxybromide
• oxyphenonium bromide
• pentabromide
• phenacyl bromide
• phenylmagnesium bromide
• phosphorous bromide
• platinum bromide
• potassium bromide
• prifinium bromide
• radium bromide
• rubidium bromide
• selenium bromide
• silicon bromide
• silver bromide
• sodium bromide
• stannic bromide
• strontium bromide
• strontium bromide-hexahydrate
• sulfur bromide, sulphur bromide
• tantalum bromide
• tellurium bromide
• tetrabromide
• tetrylammonium bromide
• thallium bromide
• timepidium bromide
• tin bromide
• titanium bromide
• tribromide
• trimedoxime bromide
• tungsten bromide
• uranous bromide
• vanadium bromide
• vinyl bromide
• ytterbium bromide
• yttrium bromide
• zinc bromide
• zirconium bromide

 

Translations

chemistry: binary compound of bromine and another element

Catalan: bromur m Chinese: Mandarin: 溴化物 (zh) (xiùhuàwù) Czech: bromid (cs) m Dutch: bromide (nl) f Finnish: bromidi (fi) French: bromure (fr) m German: Bromid n Hindi: दुराघ्रेय (durāghrey) Hungarian: bromid (hu) Italian: bromuro (it) m Japanese: 臭化物 (ja) (しゅうかぶつ, shūkabutsu) Kazakh: бромид (bromid) Kyrgyz: бромид (ky) (bromid) Norwegian: bromid n Polish: bromek (pl) m Portuguese: brometo (pt) m Romanian: bromură (ro) f Russian: броми́д (ru) m (bromíd) Scottish Gaelic: bròimid f Spanish: bromuro (es) m Swedish: bromid (sv) c Telugu: బ్రోమైడు (brōmaiḍu)

dose of bromide taken as a sedative

Czech: bróm m Dutch: bromide (nl) f Russian: бром (ru) m (brom)

dull person with conventional thoughts

Czech: suchar (cs) m Finnish: tylsimys (fi) Spanish: pelmazo (es)

platitude — see platitude

References

1. Gelett Burgess (1906) Are You A Bromide?‎

Further reading

• bromide on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• bromide (language) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• embroid

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Dutch

Etymology

Probably borrowed. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌbroːˈmi.də/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: bro‧mi‧de
• Rhymes: -idə

Noun

bromide f (uncountable)

1. (inorganic chemistry) bromide
2. bromide (sedative)

Derived terms

• kaliumbromide
• lithiumbromide