brisk

Uncertain. Compare Welsh brysg and French brusque.

• IPA^(key): /bɹɪsk/
• Rhymes: -ɪsk

brisk (comparative brisker or more brisk, superlative briskest or most brisk)

1. Full of liveliness and activity; characterized by quickness of motion or action

   Synonyms: lively, spirited, quick

   We took a brisk walk yesterday.

   • 2012 December 29, Paul Doyle, “Arsenal's Theo Walcott hits hat-trick in thrilling victory over Newcastle”, in The Guardian‎:

     Ba, who has been linked with a January move to Arsenal, should have rewarded their brisk start with the opening goal in the 16th minute.

2. Full of spirit of life; effervescing
3. (archaic) sparkling; fizzy

   brisk cider

4. Stimulating or invigorating.

   This morning was a brisk fall day. It wasn't cold enough for frost, but you wanted to keep moving.

5. Abrupt, curt in one's manner or in relation to others.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, ch. 15

     Her manner was brisk, and her good-breeding scarcely concealed her conviction that if you were not a soldier you might as well be a counter-jumper.

• brusque

brisk (third-person singular simple present brisks, present participle brisking, simple past and past participle brisked)

1. (transitive, intransitive, often with "up") To make or become lively; to enliven; to animate.

• brisk in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• brisk in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• brisk at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Birks, birks

From brej, possibly related to Proto-Indo-European *bhrisqo- 'bitter'. Compare Norwegian brisk (“bitter taste”), brisken (“bitter, sharp”), Welsh brysg, French brusque, Russian брезга́ть (brezgátʹ, “nauseate, feel disgust”), English brisk.

brisk

1. razor
2. sharp, smart, keen, freezing cold

• briski

• IPA^(key): [bʲrʲɪs̪k]

brìsk

1. second-person singular imperative of bristi