Other forms: brochures
A brochure is a small booklet advertising a product or a place. Glossy paper, good photographs, and nothing about the building site next door.
Travel gave the word its strongest association, and the holiday brochure was once a whole season's ritual, ordered by post in January. Estate agents, colleges and car dealers all produce them. The word came from French, from a root meaning stitched, since the pages are sewn rather than bound. A leaflet is smaller and a prospectus is what a school or a company issues.
1nounbrochureA small illustrated booklet advertising something.
“She picked up a brochure from the rack by the door.”
A brochure is a stitched thing. French brochure comes from brocher, to stitch, from broche, an awl, and behind that Latin broccus, pointy-toothed, so the booklet is named after the needle that held it together.
Latin
broccus — pointy-toothed
Vulgar Latin
brocca
Old French
brochier — to pierce
French
brochure — stitched work
English, today
brochure
Built from
1748, from French brochure (“stitched work”), from brocher (“to stitch”), from Old French brochier (“to pierce”), from broche (“awl”), from Vulgar Latin brocca, from Latin broccus (“pointy-toothed”). a doublet of broach.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA