Word of the Day Archive
Sunday January 14, 2007
bromide \BROH-myd\ , noun:
1. A compound of bromine and another element or a positive organic radical.
2. A dose of potassium bromide taken as a sedative.
3. A dull person with conventional thoughts.
4. A commonplace or conventional saying.
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em. The words are in fact already a bromide when the pompous Malvolio finds and reads them.
-- Marjorie Garber, Symptoms of Culture
He cannot resist the occasional bromide: "Ninety percent of diplomacy is a question of who blinks first."
-- Gary J. Bass, "The Negotiator", New York Times, July 11, 1999
The next president could live up to that old political bromide "Let's run the government like a business" by staffing his cabinet with some leading figures from the new world of business.
-- Daniel H. Pink, "Fast.Gov", Fast Company, October-2000
Bromide was formed from the first element of English bromine and the suffix -ide; the pair of bromine/bromide parallel chlorine/chloride. Bromine itself comes from French brome, from Greek bromos, "bad smell." The adjective form is bromidic.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for bromide
