brayer

English

Etymology

From bray +‎ -er.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹeɪɚ/
• Rhymes: -eɪə(ɹ)

Noun

brayer (plural brayers)

1. (printing) A hand printing tool, in the US often a roller, used to spread a thin even layer of ink. Early brayers, consisting of a vertical cylinder with a single handle, were designed to break up thick inks before spreading.
2. One who brays, or makes the sound of a donkey.
   • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the First”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin, London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 2:

     Sound forth my Brayers, and the welkin rend

Anagrams

• Yarber, ebrary

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French, from Old Norse bræða (“melt; make oil, tar, pitch”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʁɛ.je/ ~ /bʁe.je/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

brayer

1. to coat with pitch

Conjugation

This is a regular -er verb as far as pronunciation is concerned, but as with other verbs in -ayer (such as payer and essayer), the <y> of its stem may optionally be written as <i> when it precedes a silent <e> (compare verbs in -eyer, which never have this spelling change, and verbs in -oyer and -uyer, which always have it; verbs in -ayer belong to either group, according to the writer's preference).

Conjugation of brayer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	brayer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	brayant /bʁɛ.jɑ̃/ or /bʁe.jɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		brayé /bʁɛ.je/ or /bʁe.je/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	braye or braie /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/	brayes or braies /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/	braye or braie /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/	brayons /bʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /bʁe.jɔ̃/	brayez /bʁɛ.je/ or /bʁe.je/	brayent or braient /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/
	imperfect	brayais /bʁɛ.jɛ/ or /bʁe.jɛ/	brayais /bʁɛ.jɛ/ or /bʁe.jɛ/	brayait /bʁɛ.jɛ/ or /bʁe.jɛ/	brayions /bʁɛj.jɔ̃/	brayiez /bʁɛj.je/	brayaient /bʁɛ.jɛ/ or /bʁe.jɛ/
	past historic2	brayai /bʁɛ.je/ or /bʁe.je/	brayas /bʁɛ.ja/ or /bʁe.ja/	braya /bʁɛ.ja/ or /bʁe.ja/	brayâmes /bʁɛ.jam/ or /bʁe.jam/	brayâtes /bʁɛ.jat/ or /bʁe.jat/	brayèrent /bʁɛ.jɛʁ/ or /bʁe.jɛʁ/
	future	brayerai or braierai /bʁɛj.ʁe/ or /bʁɛ.ʁe/ or /bʁe.ʁe/	brayeras or braieras /bʁɛj.ʁa/ or /bʁɛ.ʁa/ or /bʁe.ʁa/	brayera or braiera /bʁɛj.ʁa/ or /bʁɛ.ʁa/ or /bʁe.ʁa/	brayerons or braierons /bʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /bʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /bʁe.ʁɔ̃/	brayerez or braierez /bʁɛj.ʁe/ or /bʁɛ.ʁe/ or /bʁe.ʁe/	brayeront or braieront /bʁɛj.ʁɔ̃/ or /bʁɛ.ʁɔ̃/ or /bʁe.ʁɔ̃/
	conditional	brayerais or braierais /bʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /bʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /bʁe.ʁɛ/	brayerais or braierais /bʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /bʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /bʁe.ʁɛ/	brayerait or braierait /bʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /bʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /bʁe.ʁɛ/	brayerions or braierions /bʁɛ.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /bʁe.jə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /bʁɛ.ʁjɔ̃/ or /bʁe.ʁjɔ̃/	brayeriez or braieriez /bʁɛ.jə.ʁje/ or /bʁe.jə.ʁje/ or /bʁɛ.ʁje/ or /bʁe.ʁje/	brayeraient or braieraient /bʁɛj.ʁɛ/ or /bʁɛ.ʁɛ/ or /bʁe.ʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	braye or braie /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/	brayes or braies /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/	braye or braie /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/	brayions /bʁɛj.jɔ̃/	brayiez /bʁɛj.je/	brayent or braient /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/
	imperfect2	brayasse /bʁɛ.jas/ or /bʁe.jas/	brayasses /bʁɛ.jas/ or /bʁe.jas/	brayât /bʁɛ.ja/ or /bʁe.ja/	brayassions /bʁɛ.ja.sjɔ̃/ or /bʁe.ja.sjɔ̃/	brayassiez /bʁɛ.ja.sje/ or /bʁe.ja.sje/	brayassent /bʁɛ.jas/ or /bʁe.jas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	braye or braie /bʁɛj/ or /bʁɛ/	—	brayons /bʁɛ.jɔ̃/ or /bʁe.jɔ̃/	brayez /bʁɛ.je/ or /bʁe.je/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Noun

brayer m (plural brayers)

1. (surgery) truss

Further reading

• “brayer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.