Bruit

Bruit (pronounced broot)

(1) To voice abroad; rumor (used chiefly in the passive and often followed by about); a rumor; a report (archaic).

(2) In medicine, any generally abnormal sound or murmur heard on auscultation.

(3) Noise; din; a loud outcry; a clamor (archaic).

1400-1450: The noun is derived from the late Middle English bruit (commotion, tumult; fame, renown (and also the collective noun for a group of barons)) and other forms, from the Anglo-Norman brut (commotion, tumult; noise, sounds; fame, renown; hearsay, rumour; (collective noun for a group of barons)) and the Old French bruit (commotion, tumult; noise, sounds; fame, renown; hearsay, rumour) (which survives in Modern French as bruit (noise; report, rumour)), a noun use of the past participle of bruire (to make a noise; to rattle; to roar; to rustle), from the Late Latin brugere, an alteration of the Latin rugīre (to roar), the present active infinitive of rugiō (to bray; to bellow, roar; to rumble), most likely from the primitive Indo-European hirewg- (to belch; to roar), possibly influenced by the Late Latin bragere (to bray).  The verb was derived from the noun.  The meaning "to report" emerged in the 1520s, extending to the sense of "rumor, tiding, fame, renown" by the mid sixteenth century.  The less common use meaning "noise, uproar, rumor" was derived from bruire (to make noise, roar).  The English word was cognate with the Italian bruito, the Medieval Latin brūgītus, the Catalan brogir (to roar) and the Old Occitan bruir & brugir (to roar).  The Late Latin brūgītus was another of those Medieval Latin inventions of uncertain origin though some suggest it was likely from the Vulgar Latin bragere (to yell) or the Latin rugīre (to roar).  Bruit is a noun & verb, bruitage is a noun (the agent noun brutier listed as archaic) and bruiting & bruited are verbs; no plural form of the noun can be said to be common but bruitages was probably historically the most frequently seen.  

For physicians only

The connection between surviving senses of bruit, (1) the softly-spoken rumour and (2) a sound from some internal organ is that the latter is so inaudible a physician usually needs a stethoscope for it to be heard.  In medicine, a bruit is an audible vascular sound associated with turbulent blood flow and although usually heard with the stethoscope, such sounds may occasionally also be palpated as a thrill.

The reason bruit has almost wholly disappeared from English except for its technical use in medicine (although the odd lawyer anxious to impress a probably linguistically jaded judge might include the odd "bruitated" in their pleas) is that, outside of that profession, few know what it means and there are a number of well-known and therefore better synonyms.  The following paragraph illustrates why bruit is best left to the physicians, this being unintelligible to almost any but them.

In the acute early phase there is vasodilation with the classical, full, bounding pulsation and arterial bruit.  Cranial and orbital bruits are vibrations resulting from turbulence in intracranial or extracranial vessels. Although usually systolic in timing, these bruits may extend into diastole or even be continuous. These sounds may originate within the cranium or be transmitted from arteries in the neck or, occasionally, from cardiac valvular lesions. The orbits provide relative "windows" for transmission of intracranial sounds, with minimal bony dissipation. Indication for cranial and orbital auscultation usually follows from historical physical examination or laboratory evidence of cranial—cervical disorders such as seizures, headaches, stroke syndromes, intracranial mass lesions, or carotid bruits.  Neck auscultation is commonly indicated for initial evaluation of stenotic or embolic cerebrovascular symptoms, or as part of a comprehensive physical examination in asymptomatic patients at risk for atherosclerosis. Cervical bruits and hums may arise from neck arteries or veins, and may be innocuous findings or indicate underlying pathology. Bruits arising in the carotid arteries are produced by intrinsic stenosis or, occasionally, with vascular occlusion from extrinsic compression. Depending on a variety of factors, these bruits may be systolic, primarily systolic with extension into diastole, or continuous. The cervical venous hum is auscultated over the internal jugular veins in many normal children. Commonly a continuous high-pitched sound, it is occasionally more prominent in diastole. It occurs more frequently on the right than on the left, and may be present bilaterally.  Supraclavicular bruits during systole are a frequent finding in normal children and in adults with subclavian or vertebral artery stenosis. Supraclavicular auscultation is usually initiated to evaluate vertebral artery occlusive symptoms, arm claudication, or "subclavian steal" in the adult with atherosclerosis.

Stop the noise, please consider the neighborhood.

Though in English bruit was banished to the physician's surgery, in French it endures (1) in the sense of "noise" as a synonym for boucan (informal) & bordel (vulgar) and (2) in the sense of rumor as a synonym for ouï-dire & rumeur.  Prefects of French regions will sometimes issue Arrêter le Bruit (Stop the Noise) ordinances restricting DIY (do it yourself) or gardening work carried out by individuals using tools or devices likely to cause inconvenience to the neighborhood due to of volume of noise (lawnmowers, motorized cultivators, chainsaws, drills, planers, saws etc).  Typically, orders restrict such activities to Monday-Friday: 08:30-12:00 & 13:30-19:30 and Saturdays:  09:00-12:00 & 15:00-19:00 with a total ban on Sundays and public holidays