Sunday Rest: brick. Word To Use With Care Today.

The Word Den plays host to readers from all over the world (people from the ten countries in which The Word Den is most popular included, last week, at least one from every continent of the world*) and this means that there must be a lot of people all over the world who speak, or are learning to speak, English.

The other day I was talking to a group of friends, one of whom spoke Shona as her first language. All was going swimmingly until someone told her she was a brick.

I do hope she knew that this was a good thing, expressive of reliability and stability and comfort, and nothing at all to do with being built like a brick outhouse**.

Mind you, in America this would mean she had a fine and shapely figure. In Britain it would mean she was just...massive.

As I say, a word to use with care.

Word To Use With Care Today: brick. This word comes from the Old French brique, and is related to the Old English brecan to break.

*Except, as my husband insists on pointing out, Antarctica. Hmm...must do some more posts on penguins...)

** Okay, the word isn't usually outhouse, exactly, but this is a family blog, and you get the idea.  A search for "built like a brick" will provide more information.