Word.ws English Dictionary

et tu, Brute

/ɛt ˈtu ˌbɹuteɪ/

et tu, Brute phrase: "You too, Brutus" or "even you, Brutus"; expressing a recognition of betrayal.

Phrase

et tu, Brute

  1. "You too, Brutus" or "even you, Brutus"; expressing a recognition of betrayal.
    • [Prince Edward:] Et tu Brute, wilt thou stab Cæsar too? A parlie sirra to George of Clarence.1591, William Shakespeare (disputed), “The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of York, and the Death of Good King Henrie the Sixt”, in Alexander Dyce, Robert Dodsley, Thomas Amyot, editors, A Supplement...
    • [Casca stabs Cæsar in the Neck. Cæsar catches hold of his Arm. He is then stabbed by several other Conspirators, and at last by Marcus Brutus.]
      Cæsar: Et Tu Brute?—Then fall, Cæsar.
      [Dies. The senators and people retire in confusion.]1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

Origin of et tu, Brute

Borrowed from Latin et tū, Brūte (literally “and you, Brutus”). Used figuratively from 1591 (sometimes jocularly) to express shock and sadness at the treachery of a good friend. Although apparently an Elizabethan invention, a “genuine antique reproduction”, it appears to have been well known in England before its use in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.

Words formed from et tu, Brute

Questions about et tu, Brute

What does et tu, Brute mean?
Et tu, Brute means "You too, Brutus" or "even you, Brutus"; expressing a recognition of betrayal.
What part of speech is et tu, Brute?
Et tu, Brute is a phrase.
How do you pronounce et tu, Brute?
Et tu, Brute is pronounced /ɛt ˈtu ˌbɹuteɪ/.

Words near et tu, Brute in the dictionary

  1. et passim
  2. et seq.
  3. et seqq.
  4. et sim.
  5. et tu
  6. et tu, Brute
  7. et ux
  8. et ux.
  9. et uxor
  10. ET-743
  11. Et-Tell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: et tu, Brute (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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Cite this entry: “et tu, Brute.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/et_tu%2C_brute. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.