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Brest

(brĕst)

1. A city of northwest France on an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean. Its large sheltered harbor was built in 1631 by Cardinal Richelieu as a naval base.

2. Formerly Brest-Li·tovsk (-lĭ-tôfsk) A city of southwest Belarus on the Bug River near the Polish border. It was the site (1596) of a synod of Eastern Orthodox church leaders who broke with Constantinople and entered into communion with the Roman Catholic Church, thereby establishing the Eastern Catholic churches. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a separate peace treaty between Russia and the German coalition in World War I, was signed here on March 3, 1918.

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

Indo-European Roots

Semitic Roots

The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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