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brutum fulmen

brutum fulmen noun: a judgement without effect.

Noun

brutum fulmen (plural bruta fulmina)

  1. A judgement without effect.
    • ... it was a question only whether the one hundred and eighty inconsistent canons thus added to the Corpus Juris of the Church would remain a mere brutum fulmen, or whether they would be the source of endless litigation and schism.1910, William Ainger Wigram, An Introduction to the History of the Assyrian Church, page 112
    • Generally speaking the making of an order which will be a brutum fulmen serves no good purpose of justice.1958, Peter Edward Nygh, Conflict of Laws in Australia, page 149
  2. (archaic) An empty threat.
    • All These would have been Blasts of Wind, bruta Fulmina, no more, if the King had yielded ...1733, Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, Dissertation Upon Parties, page 53
    • 'But nobody heeds you, my worthy; it's mere waste of powder—shooting at emptiness, brutum fulmen—mere play-house thunder ...'1824, William Henry Pyne, Wine and Walnuts, page 301

brutum fulmen meaning in Tamil

brutum fulmen in Tamil

போலிப் பயமுறுத்தல், வெற்று வேட்டு

Forms of brutum fulmen

pluralbruta fulmina
alternative formfulmen brutum

Origin of brutum fulmen

From Latin brutum (“stupid”) + fulmen (“lightning”), derived from a 1680 pamphlet by Thomas Barlow of that title, originally from a passage of Pliny's Natural History: "hinc bruta fulmina et vana" ("these senseless and ineffectual thunder-claps", intended as a literal description of lightning).

Questions about brutum fulmen

What does brutum fulmen mean?
Brutum fulmen means a judgement without effect.
What is brutum fulmen in Tamil?
Brutum fulmen in Tamil is போலிப் பயமுறுத்தல், வெற்று வேட்டு. See Brutum fulmen meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is brutum fulmen?
Brutum fulmen is a noun.
What is the plural of brutum fulmen?
The plural of brutum fulmen is bruta fulmina.

Words near brutum fulmen in the dictionary

  1. brutist
  2. Bruton
  3. Bruton's tyrosine kinase
  4. Brutosky
  5. Bruttium
  6. brutum fulmen
  7. Brutus
  8. Brutuses
  9. Bruun
  10. Bruuns
  11. bruv

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brutum fulmen (page history and authors); brutum fulmen (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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