From Middle English brytten, brutten, from Old English brittian, bryttian (“to divide, dispense, distribute, rule over, possess, enjoy the use of”), from Proto-Germanic *brutjaną (“to break, divide”), from Proto-Germanic *breutaną (“to destroy, crush, break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewd- (“to break”). Cognate with Icelandic brytja (“to chop up, break in pieces, slaughter”), Swedish bryta (“to break, fracture, cut off”), Danish bryde (“to break”), and outside the Germanic family with Albanian brydh (“to make crumbly, friable, soft”). Related to Old English brytta (“dispenser, giver, author, governor, prince”), Old English brēotan (“to break in pieces, hew down, demolish, destroy, kill”).
1
To break in pieces; divide.
2
To bruise; indent.
3
To fall out or shatter (as overripe hops or grain).
Etymology Probably from Middle English bret or birt, applied to a different kind of fish. See bret.
1
One of the young of herrings, sprats, etc.
2
One of the tiny crustaceans, of the genus Calanus, that are part of the diet of right whales.
The edges of these bones are fringed with hairy fibres, through which the Right Whale strains the water, and in whose intricacies he retains the small fish, when openmouthed he goes through the seas of brit in feeding time.1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
brit
noun
Etymology Borrowed from Hebrew בְּרִית.
1
brit milah
2
A covenant, specifically that between God and the Jewish people.
The second theocentric approach to observance stresses the partnership of God and man. The Torah and the mitzvot express the eternal brit or covenant made between God and the Jewish people.2000, David Golinkin, “The Whys and Hows of Conservative Halakhah”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 3, page 14:
There is a special brit between God and the Families-of-Israel. The Torah is the story of that brit2005, Joel Lurie Grishaver, Jewish Values Alef to Tav, page 13:
1 more example
When the Jews were expelled from Eretz Yisrael into galus, and were punished for their sins with the destruction of the first and second Temples, the bris between G-d and Yisrael is not ended.2020, Aaron Chaim HaLevi Zimmerman, Torah & Rationalism, page 120: