Why “broogh” is a great word
A steep bank or grassy cliff, particularly as found on the Isle of Man. From the Manx broogh ("brow, hill, hillock, bank"), cognate with the Scottish Gaelic bruach ("bank, brink"). Unlike a "brae" (which suggests a gentler, rolling hillside) or a "bluff" (which implies a broad, flat-fronted headland), a broogh is a precipitous, verdant scarp intimately tied to Manx shores. It is the raw, grassy lip where a sheep-track ends in sheer air; the crumbling, sod-covered edge above a churning cove; the last green verge before the long fall into the mist—a border not just of land, but of belonging.