Middle English Dictionary Entry
brotel adj.
Entry Info
| Forms | brotel adj. Also britel, brutel, bretel, bruttle, brothil, brythel, brethil, briȝel. |
| Etymology | Cp. OE gebrot, gebrut fragment & gebryttan break, shatter. |
Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)
Note: Cp. brokel.
1.
(a) Fragile, brittle, easily broken; ~ as glas; (b) easily hurt or destroyed, feeble; (c) changeable, mutable; precarious, uncertain; (d) morally weak, fickle, vacillating, untrustworthy.
Associated quotations
a
- (c1384) WBible(1) (Dc 369(2))2 Cor.4.7 : We han this tresour in brotil [WB(2): britil] vesselis.
- (c1384) WBible(1) (Dc 369(2))2 Tim.2.20 : In the greet hows ben not oonli goldyn vessels..but and treene and brutil [L fictilia] or ertheli.
- (a1398) *Trev.Barth.(Add 27944)324a/b : The owle eiren beþ smale and spekked, Wiþ brotil schellis.
- a1400 Ancr.Recl.(Pep 2498)81/2,4 : Who so bereþ..in a brotil vessel as glas [etc.]..we bere halyway in a brotyl vessel, wel brotiler þan þe glas.
- c1425(a1420) Lydg.TB (Aug A.4)5.854 : Brotel as glas.
- a1425(a1382) WBible(1) (Corp-O 4)Lev.6.28 : The bretil [L fictile] vessel forsothe in the which it is sothen shal be broken.
- a1425(a1382) WBible(1) (Corp-O 4)Lev.14.5 : In a britil vessel [WB(2): in a vessel of erthe].
- (?a1439) Lydg.FP (Bod 263)5.588 : Of brotel glas rather than of steel.
- (1440) PParv.(Hrl 221)177 : Freyl, and brokulle, or brytylle [Win: brythel; KC: febyl]: Fragilis.
- c1450(c1400) Vices & V.(2) (Hnt HM 147)80/32 : Þat is bruteler and febler þan is þe glas.
- (a1470) Malory Wks.(Win-C)142/19 : The swerde and the scawberde was counterfete and brutyll and false.
- a1550 *Ripley CAlch.(BodeMus 63)62b : Than bruttle will that ferment as anye glas be.
b
- ?c1335 Swet ihc hend (Hrl 913)p.82 : Þou ne art bot a brotil tre Of schorte seuen fote..Þe ax is at þe rote.
- (1340) Ayenb.(Arun 57)129 : Ysy hou þou art fyeble and brotel..þou wenst by hol and strang, ac..þou hest þe humours..þet þe ssolle lede to þe dyaþe.
- (a1387) Trev.Higd.(StJ-C H.1)4.91 : At home þey [the Romans] beeþ brutel [L fragilis] and liȝtliche overcome.
- (a1393) Gower CA (Frf 3)prol.877 : Upon his olde ton It stant of brutel Erthe and Stiel.
- (c1395) Chaucer CT.Mch.(Manly-Rickert)E.1279 : On brotil [vrr. brutel, brothil] ground they bilde.
- ?a1425(c1380) Chaucer Bo.(Benson-Robinson)3.pr.8.26 : How litil and how brotel possessioun thei coveyten that putten the goodes of the body aboven hir owene resoun.
- a1450(1408) *Vegetius(1) (Dc 291)65a : And þe erþe oþer þe londe þat þis diche moot be made on be so brotel and so loes þat it wil noȝt holde to gidre.
- c1450 Jacob's W.(Sal 103)221/27 : Whanne my soule partyth fro my body, þat is frele & brotyl.
c
- (a1387) Trev.Higd.(StJ-C H.1)2.217 : No beest haþ lyf more brutel and vnsiker [L fragilior].
- (c1390) Chaucer CT.Pars.(Manly-Rickert)I.473 : The commendacioun of the peple is..ful brotel [vrr. brotle, brutil, brethil] for to triste; this day they preise, tomorwe they blame.
- (c1395) Chaucer CT.Mch.(Manly-Rickert)E.2061 : O thow fortune vnstable!..O brotil [vrr. bretil, britel] ioye! O swete venym queynte!
- c1425(a1420) Lydg.TB (Aug A.4)5.1026 : Þi brotel fauour..Meynt and allaied with mutabilite.
- (1420) Stonor1.32 : Reson wolde that þay were had aredy, for drede of changyng of þe world þat is bretell.
- c1450 Cato(2) (Sid 63)127 : Seþe bretle and vncertain life Is ȝouen bothe to man and wife.
- 1532-1897(c1385) Usk TL (Thynne:Skeat)45/110 : At the goinge of the ilke brotel joye, ther yede no more [etc.].
d
- c1350(a1333) Shoreham Poems (Add 17376)5/120 : For man his so brotel Ine his owene kende -- Þaȝ he torni to senne aȝen..he may come to stat a-ȝeyn.
- (a1387) Trev.Higd.(StJ-C H.1)4.129 : Sikernesse schulde be enemy to þe brutel [L infirmis] wittes of Romayns.
- c1390 PPl.A(1) (Vrn)9.37 : Þe Bodi..Brutel [vr. britel] is of kuynde, And þorw þe fend..Sungeþ þe sadde Mon seuen siþes in þe day.
- a1425 Wycl.Serm.(Bod 788)1.268 : Þese prelatis..ben how fresh brotel [vr. britil] and stinkinge.
- c1430(c1386) Chaucer LGW (Benson-Robinson)1885 : The trewest ys ful brotel for to triste.
- (?a1439) Lydg.FP (Bod 263)1.6356 : Thei musten deien or discure, So brotil is..ther nature.
- a1450-a1500(1436) Libel EP (Warner)580 : Wee be frayle..And also bretyll, not tough, nevere abydynge.
- c1475(c1445) Pecock Donet (Bod 916)208/27 : Þou schalt considre..how brotyl, vnsure a wrecche þou art, how perilose to trust to, how redy to be vnkinde and to be fals.