Unnumbered source etymology · variant 1/2
Original entry ↗To build, line, or form with bricks. · To make into bricks. · To hit someone or something with a brick. · To make (an electronic device) non-functional and usually beyond repair, as a result of software or configuration issues.
Extremely cold.
From Late Middle English brik, bryke, bricke, from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch bricke ("cracked or broken brick; tile-stone"; modern Dutch brik), ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *brekan (“to break”), whence also Old French briche and French brique (“brick”). Compare also German Low German Brickje (“small board, tray”). Related to break. The social media slang sense derives from memes about building up one's feed “brick by brick”, analogizing bricks with reels that inform the algorithm. The sense of a helpful, reliable person comes from Lycurgus referring to the army as the walls of Sparta, every man a brick.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
This page abbreviates 2 auxiliary source items. The etymology narrative is not shortened. Omission counts are available in the audit fields below; consult the original for complete auxiliary material.
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "brik"
},
"expansion": "Middle English brik"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gml",
"3": "-"
},
"expansion": "Middle Low German"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "dum",
"3": "bricke"
},
"expansion": "Middle Dutch bricke"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nl",
"2": "brik"
},
"expansion": "Dutch brik"
},
{
"name": "gloss",
"args": {
"1": "\"cracked or broken brick; tile-stone\"; modern Dutch <i class=\"Latn mention\" lang=\"nl\">brik</i>"
},
"expansion": "(\"cracked or broken brick; tile-stone\"; modern Dutch brik)"
},
{
"name": "der",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "gmw-pro",
"3": "*brekan",
"t": "to break"
},
"expansion": "Proto-West Germanic *brekan (“to break”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fro",
"2": "briche"
},
"expansion": "Old French briche"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "fr",
"2": "brique",
"t": "brick"
},
"expansion": "French brique (“brick”)"
},
{
"name": "cog",
"args": {
"1": "nds-de",
"2": "Brickje",
"t": "small board, tray"
},
"expansion": "German Low German Brickje (“small board, tray”)"
}
],
"links": [
[
"brik",
"brik#Middle_English"
],
[
"bryke",
"bryke#Middle_English"
],
[
"bricke",
"bricke#Middle_English"
],
[
"bricke",
"bricke#Middle_Dutch"
],
[
"Dutch",
"w:Dutch language"
],
[
"brik",
"brik#Dutch"
],
[
"*brekan",
"Reconstruction:Proto-West Germanic/brekan"
],
[
"briche",
"briche#Old_French"
],
[
"brique",
"brique#French"
],
[
"Brickje",
"Brickje#Low_German"
],
[
"break",
"break#English"
],
[
"meme",
"meme"
],
[
"feed",
"feed"
],
[
"algorithm",
"algorithm"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "verb",
"glosses": [
"To build, line, or form with bricks.",
"To make into bricks.",
"To hit someone or something with a brick.",
"To make (an electronic device) non-functional and usually beyond repair, as a result of software or configuration issues."
],
"tags": [
"transitive",
"slang"
],
"recordId": "0519d47130d9c4363639766395cc8caeb5a5dae885415278fda1e90a4fc819d6",
"rawRecordSha256": "71a7d903fef2a77f27b9e8dbe10b098a2671df0161905239dc1750bc602a44de",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 33630
},
{
"pos": "adj",
"glosses": [
"Extremely cold."
],
"tags": [
"New-York",
"colloquial",
"not-comparable"
],
"recordId": "d869b6d53f49177df584b6b8158ec2233ebdd988c0e6446cd5ad51107db11741",
"rawRecordSha256": "8b7f03d8b6da53546150f8e557723a539c75397873088ee63869450a611cc3a1",
"sourceRecordOrdinal": 33631
}
],
"omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
"templates": 0,
"links": 0,
"references": 0,
"descendants": 0,
"lexicalRecords": 0,
"lexicalSenses": 2,
"glosses": 0
}
}