bravo

UK/ˈbɹɑːvəʊ/US/ˈbɹɑvoʊ/

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans spoken

Other forms: bravos

A bravo is a hired ruffian or assassin. A gang of bravos, the duke's bravos, hired bravos.

It is the same Italian word as the shout of approval and as brave, which took a very different road. This sense belongs to Renaissance Italy and to the fiction written about it.

Definitions of bravo

1nounbravoA hired ruffian or assassin.C2
“The jealous duke hired a bravo to kill his rival in a dark alley.”

bravo is a ruffian.

Where it comes from

Italian bravo means bold or wild; brave is a doublet.

Italian
bravo
English, today
bravo

Italian bravo. a doublet of brave.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

← Vocabulary

bravo

UK/ˈbɹɑːvəʊ/US/ˈbɹɑvoʊ/

nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans spoken

Other forms: bravos

A bravo is a hired ruffian or assassin. A gang of bravos, the duke's bravos, hired bravos.

It is the same Italian word as the shout of approval and as brave, which took a very different road. This sense belongs to Renaissance Italy and to the fiction written about it.

Definitions of bravo

1nounbravoA hired ruffian or assassin.C2
“The jealous duke hired a bravo to kill his rival in a dark alley.”

bravo is a ruffian.

Where it comes from

Italian bravo means bold or wild; brave is a doublet.

Italian
bravo
English, today
bravo

Italian bravo. a doublet of brave.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA