Etymology

Brussels

B3R1U1S1S1E1L1S1

Today it means: A Brussels carpet. Full definition →

Dutch Brusse ← Old Dutch *sali ← Proto-West Germanic *brōk
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-West Germanic*brōk
  2. Old Dutch*bruoc
  3. Old Dutch*sali
  4. DutchBrusse
  5. English todayBrussels

Borrowed from Dutch Brussel. The metonymic meaning of Brussels as the European Union stems from the fact that the EU headquarters is based in Brussels.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.