“Bear the brunt” means enduring the worst of a negative impact, whether physical or intangible. Its origin may be from Old English, where “brunt” was associated with the German word for burn. It may have originated from battles, where the “bump” was the climax. “Take the heat” is a similar idiom. Other synonyms include “time” and “resistance.”
When English speakers use the phrase “bear the brunt” of something, they are referring to withstanding the worst of a negative thing, or the full force of a negative impact. In this sentence, a literal element has been abstracted into something which may refer to a situation where social pressure or other intangibles are in full force affecting the situation and the impact on the individual or group is psychological or financial rather than physical. In other uses of the phrase, a more literal meaning applies.
Many attribute the origin of the phrase “bear the burden” to Old English forms. Old English has much in common with the German language, and some word historians can identify the original meaning of the word “brunt.” Here, the word appears to be associated with the German word for burn, for example, where the modern English word “burnt” translates into German as verbrannt.
Some language historians offer more specific details about the original meaning of this phrase. Some point out that the Anglo-Saxon word brenning means “to burn” in modern English. One explanation is that the “bump” is the climax or “hottest” part of a battle, and therefore to bear the brunt would be to suffer through the most intense point of a conflict.
Those who see the phrase this way point out that the idiom “take the heat” works in much the same way and may have originated in conjunction with “bear the brunt.” As noted, the original phrase is used for a physical or abstract force. For example, someone might say “the house was hit by the impact of the storm,” where the impact was physical and observable. Alternatively, one could say that a non-profit group “bears the brunt” of a government policy, in which the actual pressure and “bearing” of the force is completely intangible.
Besides “take the heat,” which is more specifically used to indicate responsibility for something, other synonyms can express “bear the brunt” in different ways. Some single word synonyms include “time” and “resistance” where the single words act as verbs. A verb phrase such as “endure” may have a similar meaning to “bear the brunt,” although the main difference is that “bear the brunt” of something identifies the subject as relatively absorbing more of one force or impact than others.
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