brazen means made of brass.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, brazen ranks #2,340 of 14,361 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,351 of 14,308 for Most Malleable Words, #2,678 of 14,410 for Most Ponderous Words, #3,299 of 14,438 for Most Storied Words.
brazen is pronounced /ˈbɹeɪ̯zən/.
Why “brazen” is a great word
Shamelessly bold and defiant, flouting propriety with a conspicuous lack of embarrassment. From Middle English *brasen*, from Old English *bræsen* ("of brass"), equivalent to brass + *-en*; the figurative sense "impudent" is first attested in the 1570s. Unlike "audacious" (which suggests daring adventure) or "modest" (which denotes humble reserve), to be brazen is to wear one's defiance like polished armor. It is the glare of a streetlamp in a sleeping town, the unblinking stare of a pickpocket caught mid-theft, and the blare of a trumpet cutting through a whispered conspiracy—a quality not of courage, but of cold, hammered alloy, refusing even the possibility of shame.
Etymology
From Middle English brasen, from Old English bræsen (“brazen, of brass”); equivalent to brass + -en (compare golden, wooden, etc.).
The word originally meant “of brass”; the figurative verb sense (as in brazen it out (“face impudently”)) dates from the 1550s (perhaps evoking the sense “face like brass, unmoving and not showing shame”), and the adjective sense “impudent” from the 1570s. Compare brass neck, bold as brass.
adj
- Made of brass.“Brazen or rather copper swords seem to have been next introduced; these in process of time, workmen learned to harden by the addition of some other metal or mineral, which rendered them almost equal in temper to iron.”
- Brass-like in appearance or character; bright, ruddy, hard.“The women, stout, strong, brazen-faced creatures, in most cases looked able to thrash any of the partners with whom they consorted.”
- Sounding harsh and loud, like brass cymbals or brass instruments.“And now the Trumpets terribly from far, / With rattling Clangor, rouze the sleepy War. / The Souldiers Shouts succeed the Brazen Sounds, / And Heav'n, from Pole to Pole, the Noise rebounds.”
- Extremely strong; impenetrable; resolute.“The giant [Goliath] was thus conquered by the youth [David]; the man-at-arms by the unarmed; the stone of the shepherd pierced the brazen defences of the warrior.”
- Shameless or impudent; shocking or audacious; brash.“She was brazen enough to deny stealing the handbag even though she was caught on camera doing so.”
verb
- To turn a brass color.“[...] the meadows roughen, grow gutteral / with goldenrod, milkweed's late-summer lilac, / cat-tails, the wild lily brazening, / dooryards overflowing in late, rough-headed bloom: [...]”
- Generally followed by out or through: to carry through in a brazen manner; to act boldly despite embarrassment, risk, etc.“And though the word doth eat up all they can ſay, as Moſes rod did: yet they harden their hearts with Pharaoh, they brazen their brows with him in the text, that ſaid I will not: Nay ſaid the Iſraelites, but we will have a King. [Commentary on Matthew 21:29.]”
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